Yiling YANG
Not urbanists understanding city best
标题。项目01
标题。项目01
日期。 2023
城市。 马德里
大小。壁画 500m x 500m
日期。 2023
城市。 马德里
大小。壁画 500m x 500m
标题。项目01
日期。 2023
城市。 马德里
大小。壁画 500m x 500m
Picture of homelessness in the European context
In the Eighth Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe (2023), FEANTSA showed the statistical evidence of the big picture of homelessness in Europe, stating that there is a worsening homelessness situation.
As illustrated in the infographic on the right, most EU countries are still experiencing an increase in the number of homelessness in general. According to the Ninth Overview of Housing Exclusion in Europe (2024), Germany, France, the Czech Republic, and Ireland ranked among the top four countries in terms of homelessness rates from 2021 to 2024, with figures at 0.487%, 0.309%, 0.289%, and 0.253%, which have already exceeded the EU average of 0.25%.
Affordable housing issue in BCR
The path depenency of getting accommodation
Throughout the twentieth century, Belgian housing policy was based on the promotion of homeownership. This can lead to not only urban sprawl which encourages the emerging middle class to progressively left old dwellings and moved to the green outskirts, but stuck people from lower class who struggle to find adequate housing due to limited access to affordable rental options, in the shrinking private rental market and the insufficient social housing sector. Today, still only 7% of houses in the BCR are owned by social housing companies, compared to almost 19% in France and 31% in the Netherlands.
Belgian homelessness relies heavily on their trajectory provided by governments and organizations. It is extremely difficult for them to access the Belgian housing market. In other words, without relying on the provided pathway to seek housing, it is almost impossible for them to find stable houses on their own. For those who have been homeless long-term and seek to reintegrate into the housing market through this trajectory, reliance on pathways becomes their only lifeline.
"Even though shelter as well as housing in the intermediate phase are temporary situations, they should be seen as proper residential contexts. The locations, scales and typologies of these projects should be assessed in relation to potential social and spatial interactions. "
Demographic background of homelessness
Overall, the number of homelessness is increasing steadily. Since the publication of the first report in 2008, the recorded number has risen by more than four times (+313.8%). The percentage of people who are experiencing the most unstable living conditions, classified as "roofless", has also increased significantly. In 2008, this group accounted for 29.2% of the total homeless people. By 2022, this figure had risen to 33.7%, In terms of nationality, 42.7% of homeless people have Belgian nationality, a proportion similar to the 42.3% who hold non-EU nationality, while 11% hold EU citizenship other than Belgian.
--Wyckaert, Leinfelder and De Decker
GOAL
The aim of the thesis is to develop a transitional housing stage that can mitigate the housing problem of Belgian nationality roofless people, ultimately enable them to transit more quickly and stably into the regular housing market.
FIELD WORK
Interview with experts from NGO and KU Leuven who are woring with Solidary Mobile Housing Pilot Project in BCR
By analyzing multiple studies on the fundamental needs of rooflessness, relevant elements are identified and organized as the initial variables.
The classified variables serve as the main content of the questionnaire, which will be discussed with experts, the roofless population, and local residents for scoring, to understand their perspectives on the importance of different variables for roofless people to reintegrate into society. Subsequently, all questionnaires are collected, and a simple calculation is performed to determine the weight of each variable, which will later be used to assign weights in calculating the Index of Reintegration Supportiveness.
Subsequently, each variable is visualized to create a series of mappings. To calculate the value of Reintegration Supportiveness for Rooflessness by neighborhood, the data for those variables is extracted and then normalized to ensure all values fall within the range of 0 to 1, with larger values indicating better reintegration supportiveness. Finally, the normalized values of all variables in each neighborhood are multiplied by their corresponding weights and summed up to produce the final index result.
In order to choose the intervention area, the conditional map is introduced to help guide spatial decision-making by clearly indicating where interventions can be most impactful and feasible. Moreover, it will be discussed with the previously developed Synthetic Map of Reintegration Supportiveness for Rooflessness by Neighborhood map to identify areas that, despite being categorized as Priority Areas, these zones represent strategic blind spots—areas with high potential for intervention but currently insufficient support.
STRATEGY
When going back to the trajectory, what I did and intervened in through this thesis was essentially to simplify the process by which Belgian roofless people gain access to affordable housing.
They no longer need to line up endlessly for emergency shelter beds or wait for extremely limited affordable housing units—instead, they can directly enter a transitional stage. This allows them to gradually reintegrate into society by participating in community activities and receiving support through transit services. Through the functioning of this system, they are supported in regaining full citizenship.
Although this might seem like only one small adjustment within the overall pathway, for those in the extremely vulnerable position, it could be a real chance to change their lives.
