"I cannot accept that a site intended for social housing should be occupied for letting a few sheep graze."

The conflict between Urban Green Space and social housing in Watermael-Boitsfort

Authors: Constantin Stoll & Eline Inghelbrecht 

Source:La Ferme du Chant des Cailles, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lafermeduchantdescailles 

‘Le Champ des Cailles’ is a field located in Watermael-Boitsfort in the southeast of the Brussels Capital Region. The field is a vacant site of 3 ha owned by the social housing company Logis-Floréal, who received the plot in 1964. Since 2012, neighbourhood residents have organised their own organic urban farming project on the site, out of which in 2014 an official NGO called ‘La Ferme du Chant des Cailles' was established under a temporary contract with Logis-Floréal. The farm’s activities of vegetables, sheep dairy products, flowers and herbs production as well as collective gardening plots and a cooperative shop now involve about 700 members from the neighbourhood. The farm works on a membership base, meaning that neighbourhood residents pay an annual membership fee in order to receive their vegetables. In return, members take part in the collection of the vegetables and managing the site. 

‘La Ferme du Chant des Cailles’ is an example of how agriculture can be implemented in today's urban landscapes. But what is Urban Agriculture (UA)? Roughly, urban agriculture can be defined as the production of crops and/or livestock in borders or cities. Urban agriculture can be really diverse. It can range from simply growing vegetables in your garden to community-based cooperatives or more professional, larger scale operations. UA can grow a wide variety of crops, from cultivation of vegetables to medicinal plants, spices or ornamental plants. 

 As such, UA can contribute amongst other things to food security, social cohesion and resilience. UA can also have a variety of positive ecological effects. Modern urban landscapes are not really known as hubs of biodiversity. Most surface areas are sealed by concrete of some sort, after all that is what we probably imagine when we think of a city. The urban green spaces that do exist are usually in the form of parks, the occasional patch of grass or trees scattered throughout the urban landscapes, growing out of holes in the otherwise intact concrete cover. Through the cultivation of a variety of plants, UA can contribute to biodiversity. 

With this in mind, the department of Environment of the Brussels Capital Region has launched a project ‘GoodFood’ in 2015. This project aims to put food at the core of the urban dynamics of Brussels from a social, economic and environmental perspective. With this project the BCR wants to encourage citizens' led participatory initiatives to produce food and educate citizens on food consumption within the urban territory. The Good Food strategy mentions ‘La Ferme du Chant Des Cailles’ as one of the commercial urban farming projects in the Region and points to its social and educational benefits, creating social cohesion among the residents and providing agricultural training. Neighbourhood residents also point to the educational purposes for school kids from the neighbourhood. 

Therefore, it seems a bit contradictory that the Brussels Government does value the ecological and social benefits of this farm, while at the same time wanting to build on the site of the farm. 

Yet, in 2019, the government of the Brussels Capital Region had decided to build a social housing block on the site, which is heavily contested by the members of the farm and other neighbourhood residents. This building project of originally 150 units, but now decreased to 70 units, would occupy 1/4th of the terrain, more specifically the sheep farm. Nevertheless, the farm in total only occupies 53% of the terrain, meaning their activities could even be expanded to 75%. The social housing company Logis-Floréal claims that the farming project could be integrated into the new housing project and create a green project together with the residents, enhancing social cohesion. However, activists of the collective ‘Les Ami.e.s du champ des Cailles’ claim that a green project was already in place, and any kind of housing development would affect the soil. They fight for the complete preservation of the terrain and call this an act of ‘greenwashing’. 

This fight of the activist group is often perceived as an activist group that is against social housing, but the activists claim that that is ‘radically incorrect’. Watermael-Boitsfort is a municipality with one of the highest rates of social housing within the Brussels Capital Region (18%), but according to the members of the farm and members of the activist group, this can also be increased, they just do not want this urban farming project to be sacrificed for it. 

 The resistance by the residents and other members of this urban agriculture project to the construction of social housing units is interesting, as it’s a conflict between socially valued goods. On the one hand, the need to address the housing crisis and provide shelter to those in need. On the other hand, the need to transform our cities towards green and sustainability goals. If you follow the first perspective, you could for example categorize the resident’s resistance as a textbook case of NIMBY (Not In My Backyard). NIMBY refers to the attitude of residents towards new developments in their area, in which they are designated as unfit or unwanted for their local area. However, is this case really just about NIMBY? After all, there are two potentially societally valued goods at stake here. One could also argue that the area for the proposed social housing units already has the highest concentration of social housing in the Brussels Capital Region and that the construction on the areal would disrupt and potentially destroy a hub for biodiversity, community and social cohesion.

Protest march Les Ami.e.s du Champ des Cailles 13/02/2022. Source: Les Ami.e.s du Champ des Cailles, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Les-Amies-du-champ-des-Cailles-103065844956519 

The activist group claims that ‘social housing and land where food can be produced are equally valuable common goods’. According to them, the severe social housing shortage in Brussels should be tackled with more structural solutions, rather than occupying the few green spaces that are left in Brussels. The activist group has organised several actions: a protest march, a petition, a citizen interpellation in the Brussels Parliament. The Brussels Secretary of State for Housing, Nawal Ben Hamou (Parti Socialiste), reacts to the activists: "I cannot accept that a site intended for social housing should be occupied for letting a few sheep graze" (A.D.D., 2022). 

As with many conflicts between two potentially good causes, it is difficult to determine who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Yet, urban space is always contested. Without an end in sight to the housing crisis as well as the need to transform our cities to greener versions of themselves, conflicts such as in Watermael-Boitsfort are only going to escalate.

Sources:

A.D.D. ‘Geen compromis gevonden over bouwplannen op Kwartelveld’.  29/03/2022. Bruzz. Retrieved 31/03/2022 from https://www.bruzz.be/stedenbouw/geen-compromis-gevonden-over-bouwplannen-op-kwartelveld-2022-03-29

De Decker, Arnaud. (12 February 2022). ‘PS hekelt houding Ecolo over sociale woningen op Kwartelzangsite’. Bruzz. Retrieved 22 March 2022 from https://www.bruzz.be/samenleving/ps-hekelt-houding-ecolo-over-sociale-woningen-op-kwartelzangsite-2022-02-12

De Marneffe, Adrien. (21 December 2021). ‘Deleuze met sur pause le plan Chant des cailles à Watermael-Boitsfort : "On est prêts à faire du logement social, mais ailleurs"’. La Libre. Retrieved 22 March 2022 from https://www.lalibre.be/regions/bruxelles/2021/12/21/deleuze-met-sur-pause-le-plan-chant-des-cailles-a-watermael-boitsfort-on-est-prets-a-faire-du-logement-social-mais-ailleurs-R7ZTOJRHYJFPZETWBI5HTTVWJ4/

Frémault, Céline. (18 December 2015). De strategie Good Food: “Naar een duurzaam voedingssysteem in het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest”. Leefmilieu.brussel & Brussel Economie en Werkgelegenheid.

Les Ami.e.s du Champ des Cailles. (n.d.) [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved 2 May 2022, from https://www.facebook.com/Les-Amies-du-champ-des-Cailles-103065844956519 

Lin, B., Philpott, S. & Jha, S. (2015). The future of urban agriculture and biodiversity-ecosystem services: Challenges and next steps. Basic and Applied Ecology 16, p. 189-201.

Interviews with several members of ‘La Ferme du Chant des Cailles’ and ‘Les Ami.e.s du Champ des Cailles’ on 31/03/2022, 12/04/2022 and 14/04/2022.