As winter approaches, initiatives like STIB's Includo team will help vulnerable residents access shelter, food and other essential services during the coldest time of the year.
Currently in Brussels, nearly 10,000 people are experiencing homelessness, and for 20 hours a day, seven days a week, the Includo team will visit metro stations to help people experiencing homelessness, mental health difficulties, or substance dependency.
With financial backing from the Brussels-Capital Region, STIB launched Includo in 2024 to address a growing number of vulnerable people seeking refuge in metro stations.
Credit: STIB-MIVB
According to STIB spokesperson Laurent Vermeersch, the aim of the initiative is not forcibly removing people from metro stations. Instead, the social program aims to understand vulnerable people's circumstances so they can connect them with appropriate support services.
"After COVID, there was a clear increase in the presence of people who were homeless or in socially difficult situations on the network," Vermeersch said. "The idea behind Includo wasn't to remove those people. It was to guide them to existing support initiatives, since it seemed like sometimes the people in need weren't finding their way to those facilities."
The Includo team consists of 27 workers, all of whom received several months of specialised training that taught them how to approach vulnerable people, interact with individuals under the influence of drugs, and how to provide first aid. Vermeersch states that many of the team members have previous experience working for STIB as drivers or security officers.
Includo workers invite people they encounter to board two specially adapted former STIB buses, identifiable by their distinct brown coloring, to have a hot drink, soup or snack. Once on board, people can discuss their biggest needs, from finding a place to sleep that night or accessing showers and social services, allowing Includo workers to recommend the proper facilities, and sometimes even bring them to them.
An Includo bus is pictured. Credit: STIB-MIVB
Last year, Includo made more than 5,700 visits to metro stations, a rate Vermeersch said STIB expects will be similar this year. On 265 occasions, the team arranged overnight accommodation for people in need. Vermeersch said this figure is likely to be higher this year despite there being a lack of room at many shelters in Brussels.
However, Vermeersch stressed that Includo is not meant to, and cannot, solve issues like homelessness on its own.
"We are actively trying to improve the (living) situation for as many people as we can, but Includo is just one initiative whose scope is limited at the end of the day," he said. "Because really we are a transportation operator doing our best to help people out, but we cannot solve the root of the problem alone."
