9,000 Brussels families get rent allowance after conditions are eased
Around 9,000 households in the Brussels Region are currently receiving a rent allowance. Brussels Secretary of State for Housing Nawal Ben Hamou (Francophone socialist) released the figure on Wednesday. Before changes to the rent allowance system in 2021, only around 400 households were getting the benfit.
The new rent allowance system in Brussels was launched in October 2021 after streamlining various different schemes, simplifying the procedure and relaxing the conditions you have to meet to get the grant. Secretary of state Ben Hamou says the agency Brussels Housing triggered a "paradigm shift" in terms of administrative simplification.
A third of the 9,000 households benefiting from the grant are single-parent families. Local social services, municipal housing services and organisations promoting integration through housing helped families to submit their applications.
Not everyone has already applied
The rent allowance consists of a monthly financial payment towards the rent that needs to be paid, prior to the allocation of social housing.
The 9,000 families receiving an allowance receive an amount ranging from 120 to 173 euros a month, plus another 20 to 43 euros per dependent child. Secretary of state Ben Hamou notes that about 3,000 households entitled to the allowance have yet to apply for it.