PANHOME project
Project title: Trajectories of homeless people and of local welfare networks adaptations during the pandemic
Funding: BELSPO
Duration: 36 Months
Partnership: Martin Wagener (UCLouvain), Griet Roets (UGent), Koen Hermans (KU Leuven), Jean-François Orianne (ULiège)
Researcher (ULiège): Nicolas Jacquet
Abstract: Relatively few knowledge is identified about the workforce of social workers, educators and others in contact with homeless people during the covid-19 pandemic. Contrary to many sectors which had to close (partially) during the first lockdown, in the homeless sector the majority of services (especially shelters) were considered as essential and remained (partially) open. They had to implement new procedures and organisation regarding their mission and corresponding rules to the sanitary situation. New services were created, existing services adapted their function and new collaborations were put into place with public and private partners, especially new forms of collaboration with health, diagnostical and quarantine services were created in urgent ways. The pandemic showed very quickly that “stay at home” signified a supplementary stake for people experiencing homelessness. Existing inequalities and differences regarding gender (re-)appeared. The pandemic also showed new forms of non-take-up (of crisis measures and other), an ongoing invisibilization women and amplified the digital divide. The regional governments of Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia as well as the federal service for social integration have all insisted on integrated approaches of homelessness before the pandemic, part of our research proposal is to question how the pandemic affected these approaches, what could be learned in order to better understand (non-)take-up of rights? How did the workforce as well as the people experiencing homelessness adapt to changing situations?
The research will be lead through three main momentums. In the first year, we investigate local welfare assemblies during the pandemic through a broad approach in 15 Belgian cities (chosen together with the Follow-up committee). In the second year we will deepen the knowledge and prepare the implementation in 4-5 cities. It is important at this stage that these cities and the local actors show that they want to deepen a participatory action research with the researchers and the follow-up-committee in order to implement during year three concrete action plans based on the overall findings of the project. By gathering very different actors (inadequate housed people, social workers and responsible persons for the implementation for public policy) the recommendations will acquire a strong legitimacy and can be better taken into account by the policies. The PPS Social Integration, the FPS Health, the Crossroads Bank for social security and Bosa (digitalisation) and other European, federal or regional institutes will be able to better take into account inadequate housing and social exclusion situations through our findings and implementation strategy.
