New board takes over Samusocial homeless agency

Brussel homeless agency Samusocial has announced a new board of directors, following a tumultuous summer of political scandals that led to the resignation of Brussels-City mayor Yvan Mayeur.

Early in June, the entire board of the agency, which organises homeless shelter and services in Brussels’ 19 municipalities, resigned in protest at improprieties among board members. Some members, including Mayeur and Pascale Peraïta, director of the social aid agency CPAS, were paid for attending Samusocial board meetings that never took place. Peraïta was also forced to resign from her post at CPAS.

The government has since altered the structure of the agency, bringing it under the control of the Capital-Region rather than of Brussels-City. It has also scrapped nearly half of the 800 paid posts that its councillors hold on boards of public concerns and has limited payment to €78 a meeting, with a few exceptions.

Previous members of the Samusocial board have all been replaced. The new board consists of five members: Christophe Happe, director of the Jean Titeca Hospital; Stéphane Heymans, director of Doctors of the World; Christine Vanhessen, director of AMA, which provides emergency services to the homeless; Bruno Vinikas of the Belgian Committee for Refugee Assistance; and VUB general manager Nic Van Craen.

The return of Peraïta

Meanwhile, Peraïta is expected to return to Samusocial on Friday. She was the director of the organisation until 2013, when she took leave without pay to work for CPAS. Because she has never officially quit or been fired from Samusocial, she has now taken legal steps to return and demand her job back.

Peraïta’s lawyer has admitted that the reason for her return is to ensure that she receive severance pay should the new board choose to fire her. “That is unimaginable,” said Brussels member of parliament Arnaud Verstraete, representing Groen. “Ms Peraïta is not interested in explaining herself in a parliamentary commission, but is happy to pass by the cashier. Totally hallucinatory.”

Pascal Smet, the Brussels minister in charge of social assistance and aid, said that, in any case, the annual winter plan for homeless shelters would not be interrupted. That means that the 350-bed shelter on Rue Royale will open as usual on 15 November, with a second facility, also good for 350 places, opening a month later.