Following the war in Ukraine, the Flemish government asked cities and municipalities to provide places on their territory for the possible reception and housing of Ukrainian refugees. In this regard, vzw De Bron Zottegem informed the city council that the building at Heldenlaan 72, which used to house the De Raeve rest home and then the De Bron residential care center (at the end of June last year, was moved to the new care campus). which De Bron realized on the Marie Popelinstraat in the Lelie district behind the AZ Sint-Elisabeth). Employees of the Social House and the municipal housing department then paid a visit to determine whether this former residential care center could be considered.
According to their findings, however, the building is not immediately suitable and sufficiently habitable for the reception and housing of refugees. According to the report of that site visit, various works should first be carried out on the roof, the water pipe, electricity and heating installation. In view of its size, this is not a project for the city’s own technical service and the adaptation and arranging of the building would therefore have to be outsourced to external firms (+ follow-up by an architect). A budget of approximately EUR 300,000 should be provided for this and an (too long) implementation period of at least eight months would be required. For all these reasons, and all the more so because it concerns a building that does not belong to the city’s patrimony, the city council has therefore decided not to use this former residential care center as a possible shelter for Ukrainian refugees.
