On April 22, 2025, lawyers Sans Frontières alerted to the criminalization of homelessness in Belgium, denouncing a punitive and ineffective approach.
The term “Sans-chez-soirism“designates The situation of an individual deprived of a real “home“. This goes beyond a shelter. This definition encompasses a broader vision of reality and is distinguished by the absence of a physical shelter, emergency, temporary, precarious, unhealthy or even institutional accommodation such as incarceration. The term without at home implies beyond the absence of a place to sleep, the absence of stability, security, intimacy, private life, autonomy and social integration and social integration and social integration.
The term “Sans-chez-soirism“Develops and is more and more preferred by social actors, especially in Belgium, for its reflection of reality and its multidimensional dimension.
1/ context.
Despite the decriminalization of vagrancy and begging in Belgium in 1993, several local practices and regulations tend to maintain a form of repression against the homeless. However, these sanctions do not hinder the individual freedoms of each. Indeed, silent begging is legal, only the exploitation of beggars is penalized. Belgium allows you to live as a squat until the owner has called for expulsion. Finally, public intoxication can give rise to criminal measures, but is not defined as a criminal offense as such. The penal code does not contain a specific provision incriminating the state of intoxication. However, excavation of the trash cans constitutes a simple flight provided for in article 461 of the penal code. This offense is punishable by imprisonment from one month to five years. The author of the flight is also required to pay a fine ranging from 26 euros to 500 euros. Nevertheless, the simple fact of sitting on the street in Belgium can lead to a fine of 350 euros. In this sense, federal law allows local authorities to punish deviant behavior and damage to local regulations by verbalizing the occupants of public space. However, this local practice is in contradiction with article 34-3 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on Social Security and Social Aid, which provides in this sense “In order to combat social exclusion and poverty, the Union recognizes and respects the right to social assistance and housing assistance intended to ensure a worthy existence for all those who do not have sufficient resources, according to the methods established by Community law and national laws and practices.”. Despite the principle of orientation of these provisions, the Member States must comply with this directive in the implementation of their public policies. Especially when it is proven that repressive policies are counterproductive and even harmful. They plunge the persons concerned in a judicial gear, more complexing their reintegration and seriously affecting their physical and mental integrity. While Today 1.2 million in the European Union, constantly increasing due to the housing crisis and economic inequality.
2/ Consequences.
The criminalization of homelessness is ineffective. NGOs, such as borders without borders, Feantesa and the Abbé Pierre Foundation, are formal: the fines imposed on the homeless create a real infernal spiral. Inability to pay leads to increases, then a risk of imprisonment, making recurrence almost inevitable and aggravating their vulnerabilities. The reports denounce a “double penalty“Both criminal and social. Registration for the criminal record and debt which result from it result in the permanently resulting access to housing, employment, care and legal procedures. In addition to being ineffective, this approach is costly on the budgetary level. Police, justice and imprisonment costs accumulate, not to mention the high cost of social and health emergencies when a structured care is not put in place.
Priority must be given to a sustainable rehousing strategy. In this sense, the housing model first appears to be the best way to effectively fight against homelessness. Several reports, such as the Policy Brief published on April 7, 2025 by lawyers Without borders, show that it is necessary to tackle the structural causes of the chez-zoism. The objective, ultimately, is to meet the needs of the poorest. Human management certainly costing less to society and being greatly more effective in terms of social reintegration.
3/ NGO recommendations.
On the one hand, it is necessary to remove the repressive legislation which criminalizes poverty. On the other hand, the revision of administrative sanctions is essential because they only strengthen precariousness and debt. At the same time, it is fundamental to guarantee universal access to social rights and to ensure the care actually adapted to the needs of people without chews. This implies the final abandonment of all discriminatory practices, in particular on the part of CPAS (public social action centers), in order to offer equitable access to social assistance. Finally, police services must imperatively adopt a preventive rather than repressive approach. A strengthening of the training of local administrations is essential to effectively fight against the criminalization of the home-zeroism.
In addition, the social protection of housing must be reinforced. Laws are necessary to protect against expulsions, find adapted alternatives in the event of loss of housing while guaranteeing the rights of the owners. Obviously, a tenant who does not pay his rent leads to a loss of income for the owner. The latter was sometimes also indebted with a rent, can also find himself without accommodation.
Another major axis of this struggle lies in the deconstruction of prejudices and stigma, in particular those linked to the origin, to social status or to the state of health. The media, political leaders and civil society have a crucial role to play in disseminating a counter-narrative based on human dignity and social justice. Discriminatory speeches must be actively fought, and the voice of people without checks must be placed at the center of the debates so that their real needs are heard and taken into account in the development of public policies.
At European level, a response has already been provided in 2021 with the signing of the Lisbon Declaration, where European institutions and Member States had created the European platform for the fight against homelessness: Epoch. More recently, European states have undertaken to eradicate the European Union’s homelessness during the event “Towards zero homeless, only 6 years to succeed”Organized on February 8 and 9, 2024. This initiative aims to make the European Union a more equitable and inclusive place.
4/ Comparative law.
The number of homeless in Finland has been divided by 5 since the 1980s when around 20,000 people were affected. This social advance makes Finland the only European country where this figure is down. This is explained by the radical policy led by the Finnish state “Housing First”. This program launched in 2008 consists in providing accommodation to those who do not have it before implementing adapted social support and overcoming all difficulties that the individual could encounter. The State, the Municipalities and the NGOs collaborate together.
To allow the implementation of this project, the construction and purchase of new housing was necessary. The Foundation has funded a large majority of the program there and to date have more than 18,000 apartments and operates in 57 cities and municipalities in Finland.
Thus, more than 12,000 people have been relocated since 1987.
5/ Housing First and social support.
The analysis of the mechanisms of criminalization of the homelessness in Belgium and in Europe reveals a regrettable dissonance between the displayed intention of public security and the reality of the consequences. The current legal arsenal, often decentralized and fragmented, generates a judicialization of poverty which encloses individuals in an increased vulnerability cycle.
The Finnish experience of “Housing First“offers a rupture model, not only ethical, but also financially viable in the long term. It shows that investment in stable housing and personalized support generates substantial economies by reducing costs related to health, justice and emergency interventions. For Belgium and the European Union, the challenge is now to go beyond the punitive framework to embrace a preventive strategy. To be inspired by these successes to make the right to housing a cornerstone of our rule of law.
Sources.
- Non-guilty homeless: fighting the criminalization and stigma of homeless people (2024, December 19) [1]
- “Sans-abri, not guilty!” »The Abbé Pierre Foundation, the Feantsa and Lawyers Without Borders denounce the criminalization of homelessness in Europe (December 2024)
[2] - The criminalization of homelessness in Belgium, a punitive and ineffective approach (April 9, 2025) [3]
- Housing First: the radical Finnish solution which gives accommodation to all Baron, P. (2023, February 21) [4]
- European Union fundamental rights charter [5]
- Towards zero homeless, only 6 years to succeed [6].
