Source: (2019) Government of Brussels: Guidance Note: part 5: Housing

Public rental guarantee fund:

 

The government intends, after assessing its feasibility, to create a public rental guarantee fund.

The government's ambition is to centralize and pool, in the long term, all the rental guarantees established, both for public housing and for private housing. The management model of this fund will be joint and will involve lessors and tenants. The government's ambition is for this public institution to act as a one-stop-shop for housing for landlords and tenants by ensuring the simultaneous deposit of the rental guarantee, the lease and the inventory of fixtures of each dwelling. In the meantime, the current mechanism for the progressive constitution of rental guarantees, organized by the Housing Fund, will be strengthened. Consultations will be continued in order to forge partnerships between the Fund and the CPAS.

Rental conciliation mechanism:

 

As access to justice - both financial and temporal - becomes difficult, the Government will set up a free rental conciliation mechanism through a joint committee made up of representatives of landlords and tenants. This commission will be responsible for evaluating, at the request of one of the parties, the accuracy of the rent with regard to the criteria of the reference grid and, in the event of a discrepancy between the reference rent and the actual rent, will attempt to reconcile the parties. Still with regard to the resolution of disputes between lessor and lessee, the Government is in favor of facilitating the support of tenants, by associations for the defense of their interests, before the Justices of the Peace. He will appeal to the Federal Government in this regard.

 

Rating of accommodation:

 

In order to fight against substandard housing, sleep merchants and housing discrimination, the government will triple the resources made available to the Directorate of Regional Housing Inspectorate (DIRL) in order in particular to increase controls for its housing. '' ensure that the accommodation meets the safety, sanitation and equipment requirements prescribed in the Brussels Housing Code.

The centralization of registrations for social housing

 

In order to be able to better support each household, the Region will strengthen the centralized administrative management of registrations. Currently the SLRB, the municipalities and the social real estate agencies each manage their own waiting lists for access to social housing. The Government will study the possibility of centralizing the listings of candidate tenants with a single operator.

 

Municipal observatories for unoccupied housing:

 

Since 2016, the Brussels-Capital Region has subsidized municipalities so that they can set up municipal observatories for unoccupied housing via an annual call for projects. To date, 11 municipalities have an agreement with the RBC which helps them technically and financially to set up detection tools (cross-referencing Siblega / Electrabel data, Bpost collaboration, etc.) and for listing empty dwellings. The Government wishes to continue this policy and extend it so that all the municipalities of the Region have an observatory in charge of carrying out an annual cadastre of unoccupied housing.

 

Fight against evictions and winter moratoriums in public housing:

 

In order to ensure greater security for vulnerable people and in order to limit situations of leaving housing, the Government will adopt clear legislation to regulate evictions. This will include adopting a winter moratorium on public housing. This winter break will extend from November to March.

 

Fight against discrimination in the housing sector:

When looking for accommodation, many Brussels residents are victims of discrimination. By obstructing their constitutional right to housing, this discrimination constitutes violence which has disastrous consequences on the daily lives of the people concerned. Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, which has been documented in several scientific studies including the one conducted in 2014 by Unia and entitled "The Barometer of Diversity in Housing", the government is committed to pursuing an active policy to fight against discrimination in the housing market. The new tools provided for in the ordinance of December 21, 2018 amending the Brussels Code of

 

Housing to strengthen the fight against discrimination in access to housing will be fully implemented.

​

Complete the construction of 6,400 housing units planned by the PRL and Alliance Habitat within 5 years:

 

The social emergency in housing is a reality that cannot be minimized. More than 43,000 Brussels households are in fact currently registered on the waiting list for social housing. And this figure continues to increase annually, due in particular to the pauperization of the Brussels population. Through the Regional Housing Plan and the Habitat Alliance, the Government set an ambitious objective for the SLRB, the creation of 8,000 housing units. If more than 1,600 of these homes have already emerged, 6,400 are planned, including nearly 2,000 blocked at various stages. In view of the current crisis, it is essential to complete their construction, the government will do everything in its power to achieve this.

 

Produce 50% of public housing among the housing created on regional land:

 

Land is under strong pressure. The land available for construction is scarce and is being snapped up at a high price. If the Region intends to activate all the levers at its disposal to increase the number of public housing in general, a production target of at least 50% of social housing among the housing created on its own land will be set.

 

Socialization of the medium-sized housing stock:

 

The number of households on the waiting list for social housing is such that a reorientation of the public housing stock is necessary. At the same time, many medium-sized dwellings find it difficult to find takers. This is the reason why a requalification with possible compensation of certain medium-sized housing units into social housing will be analyzed in consultation with public donors.

 

Accelerated procedures in terms of town planning:

 

Urban.brussels will provide for a specific unit of specialized agents responsible for examining urban planning permits relating to public housing. These agents will be the first contact with the initiators of public housing projects and will be available for consultation before submitting the permit application. Subsequently, Urban.brussels will participate in regular meetings with the sector to continuously monitor the progress of public housing projects.

 

Extending relocation solutions to the private rental market:

 

During the renovation of public housing, it is sometimes necessary to relocate the occupants of the property, but the difficulty of rehousing these tenants in an already over-used housing stock can be a brake on the renovation policy. It is therefore essential to find rapid rehousing solutions so as not to delay the renovation, nor to paralyze the allocation of new housing to households on the waiting list, sometimes for many years. In order to speed up the start of renovation projects while offering nearby housing, the Government will be able to extend rehousing solutions to the private rental market.

 

Improvement and simplification of social housing renovation procedures - SLRB:

 

The Government undertakes to rehabilitate all existing social housing units, in particular by ensuring the elimination of obstacles and shortening the time taken to carry out renovation work. In particular, work aimed at improving the energy performance of social housing stock should be facilitated.

 

Develop a four-year plan for energy savings:

 

Reducing the energy impact of public housing is both an environmental and a social necessity. Indeed, the amount of charges paid by an already precarious public can sometimes exceed the amount of the rent. The government will therefore pursue an ambitious policy of renovating the public housing stock. The government will establish a new complementary four-year plan mainly focused on reducing energy consumption and charges for tenants of social housing.

 

Reducing maintenance costs for green spaces

 

As with energy costs, it is necessary to reflect on reducing the maintenance costs of green spaces for social tenants. The desired greening should not weigh on the wallet of this public with limited income.