The Brussels agency responsible for public cleaning has again stopped operating in the Brabant neighbourhood near Brussels North Station due to attacks on its staff. While a private company has been hired to keep the situation under control, locals are worried the situation will deteriorate in the long term.
The Brabant quarter in the North of Brussels – which includes Rue d’Aerschot, infamous for its brothels – has a long history of poverty and homelessness, along with periodic insecurity and violence. This is largely caused by drug gangs operating in the area and drug addicts.
These issues have also led to concern in Bruxelles Proprieté – the agency responsible for waste collection and street cleaning– for the safety of their staff in the neighbourhood for two years now. In May the agency deemed it necessary to temporarily stop cleaning eight streets in the area after one of its employees was attacked.
As a result, cleaning teams were accompanied by community guards ("gardiens de la paix", in purple jackets) and the police carried out more frequent patrols. The agency also called for lasting structural solutions. "We asked for more police patrols while our teams are working. They work very early in the morning when streets are empty, meaning there is more risk of an attack," Bruxelles-Propreté spokesperson Adel Lassouli told The Brussels Times.
However, the exchanges with the Schaerbeek municipal authorities were deemed "fruitless" and the agency decided to suspend the cleaning of Rue de Brabant, Rue d’Aerschot, Rue de Quatrecht, Rue Rogier, Rue d’Hoogvorst, Rue Allard, Rue de Potter and Rue Liedts after another attack on 11 June. "This is not an isolated incident," said Lassouli. "There are serious problems of insecurity and we've experienced a lot of attacks over the last two years."
The agency is invoking an article from the 2016 convention governing the region’s management of municipal streets. This applies the "force majeur" principle, which stops the agency's operations under extraordinary circumstances in which its employees are at risk. "We will suspend our cleaning here until we can find solutions to ensure safety."
'Losing customers'
While scheduled waste collections will continue as usual, the teams that clean up street litter did not come to the neighbourhood for days. As a result, rubbish was left for a week to pile up on most streets. The warmer weather caused a stench to spread.
Audrey Dereymaeker, spokesperson for Brussels-North police zone, told The Brussels Times that "the current situation is not optimal" and "It certainly creates a feeling of insecurity."
One man who owns a grocery store on Rue d'Aerschot expressed his discontent: "I'm not happy, what is happening here is not normal. For days we have been sitting in a mess," he told The Brussels Times. "We pay our taxes so we can live on clean streets but now we're losing customers because the streets are left dirty and disgusting, without any solutions. It will likely only get worse."
Credit: Belga
He added that while he doesn't feel unsafe himself, the situation in the neighbourhood has deteriorated. "What's worse, we now see young people are also affected. I see children inhaling laughing gas from balloons every day, it's not only adults. This needs to be banned, it is the root cause of many problems."
One cleaner who works for Schaerbeek commune a few streets outside the neighbourhood sympathised with the agency's staff: "This is a problematic area with many drug addicts and alcoholics hanging around. If the cleaners arrive too early, they meet these people who feel they are being disturbed, so they attack them verbally and also physically," he told The Brussels Times. "I understand that they want to see improvement."
One young woman who regularly passes through the streets on her commute also showed understanding to Bruxelles-Propreté: "I understand they are trying to make a statement but it doesn't help to stop the broader issue either," she told The Brussels Times. "The dirtier it gets, the easier it is to litter more. This also reinforces the feeling of impunity."
'Abandoning the area'
Schaerbeek's councillor for cleanliness Deborah Lorenzino (Défi) echoed this criticism: "The agency may not have any qualms about abandoning an entire neighbourhood, but we certainly do. We cannot allow the situation to deteriorate any further. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the residents, shopkeepers and other users of the area."
The municipality was able to hire a private company, Krinkels, to come and clean the litter on Tuesday morning. "The College has also approved my proposal to launch a public contract that will allow us to engage a private operator regularly over the coming months," Lorenzino said. But at a cost of €10,000 a day this is not a sustainable solution. The Rue d'Aerschot shopkeeper added that even after the private company came to clean, a lot of litter was left behind.
Bruxelles-Propreté's Lassouli responded that the agency does understand the difficult situation for local residents. However he said the agency has made its stance clear. "It is now up to the Schaerbeek municipality to organise the cleaning of these streets until the safety conditions are met. As soon as our staff can do their jobs in safety, we'll work again."
He added that Bruxelles-Propreté is willing to be constructive, but expects structural progress. However, it seems unlikely the parties will reach an agreement any time soon. Lorenzino has argued that the commune has worked hard to find lasting solutions to the problems of insecurity identified by the agency's workers, but that Bruxelles-Propreté is not showing goodwill. The municipality is now also considering legal action to force Bruxelles-Propreté to resume work in the neighbourhood.
