Three-star hotel welcomes homeless

Hotel Mozart, a three-star hotel in Brussels, is putting dozens of rooms at the disposal of homeless people who would otherwise have to sleep outside in the cold.

According to the manager of Hotel Mozart, Benjamin Hamed, there are few guests in the hotel at the moment because it is low season.

He saw on the television news that Brussels was having a big problem sheltering all the homeless in the capital.  Rather than see so many homeless people having to sleep outside in the cold, Benjamin Hamed decided to make rooms available to them.
 
The only condition the owner is setting is that the homeless people do not make too much noise or cause a disturbance for the other guests in the hotel. In exchange they can enjoy a warm night in a luxury bed.

"It’s important: Belgium took me in.  I also want to take in people in need in my turn,"  says Hotel Mozart owner Benjamin Hamed.

A room with breakfast in the heart of Brussels usually costs at least €100 per night. Benjamin hopes that others will follow his lead and also help out the homeless during these cold days and, especially, nights.

Federal government earmarks €250,000 for homeless

The five large cities in the country: Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège are getting extra money from the federal government to help the homeless.

Social Integration Minister Marie Arena has earmarked €250,000 extra.  In this freezing cold weather some homeless shelters are being forced to turn people away because they do not have enough beds.

(flandersnews.be/Expatica)