One Year After Ghent OCMW Murder: What Has Changed?
Exactly one year after the murder of Erik Boone, a 56-year-old social worker at the Public Centre for Social Welfare (OCMW) in Ghent, the city paused for a minute of silence across all municipal services on Thursday. The anniversary has prompted a national reckoning over workplace safety for social workers and the mounting pressures they face.
Boone was killed on 13 August 2025 during a home visit at a social housing apartment in the Kikvorsstraat in the Nieuw Gent neighbourhood. He was stabbed to death. The suspect, a 38-year-old man of Syrian origin who lived in the apartment and had a psychiatric history, was arrested later that night in the Brugse Poort area of Ghent. He had not been previously known to police or justice, and his motive remains unclear even after a judicial reconstruction in May 2026.
A Wave of Shock and Action
The murder sent shockwaves across Belgium. Nearly 1,000 people attended a memorial in Nieuw Gent days after the killing, and the OCMW closed all service centres until the following Monday. The tragedy became a catalyst for change at multiple levels of government.
In Ghent, the city implemented a range of measures: adapted home visit policies, reinforced zero-tolerance reporting of aggression incidents, three preventive office closures, extra glass partitions and redesigned consultation rooms, and a pilot project with 36 staff testing portable emergency buttons. Additional cameras are planned for OCMW offices after the summer, and new training programmes began in April. The city also provides psychological support for staff after aggression incidents.
“OCMWs already had attention for aggression,” said Véronique Janssens, director of the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities (VVSG). “The murder put the theme higher on the agenda and accelerated existing plans.” Other municipalities followed suit: Kortrijk installed emergency buttons, Haacht redesigned rooms with better escape routes, Kampenhout adopted a checklist for safe home visits, and Leuven began training social workers to detect aggression.
Federal and Regional Policy Changes
At the federal level, Minister of Social Integration Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) issued a circular letter in December 2025 allowing OCMWs to withhold or withdraw living allowance (leefloon) from clients who show aggression towards staff, including verbal aggression, threats, or intimidation. “Where aggression begins, our solidarity must end,” Van Bossuyt said.
The measure drew criticism from unions and some local officials. “You don’t help society forward by immediately stopping assistance and making people homeless,” said Astrid De Bruycker, Ghent’s alderman for social policy. Dries Goedertier of the ACOD LBR union was blunter: “The government creates anger and then wants to punish it.”
In June 2026, Flanders launched a new aggression protocol together with employer and employee organisations, providing local governments with concrete guidelines on risk assessment, escape routes, alarm buttons, codes of conduct, and aftercare for victims of aggression.
Persistent Workload Concerns
Despite these measures, the VVSG warns that workload remains a major concern. The federal government’s limitation of unemployment benefits in time has led to OCMWs processing significantly more files. A VVSG survey found that 14 percent of client contacts are difficult, though most go well.
“The federal government also plans new changes,” Janssens said. “Work is piling up. The government must communicate adjustments in a timely and clear manner. Moreover, changes must be spread out over time so that workers can prepare better and have enough time for difficult conversations.”
De Bruycker echoed this concern: “OCMW workers say clients are frustrated by rapid changes. It doesn’t make social work easy.”
A Lasting Legacy
Erik Boone’s legacy endures beyond policy changes. In December 2025, Knack magazine named him Person of the Year. In March 2026, HOGENT university college named a quiet room after him, inaugurated during a study day for social workers with over 500 attendees.
As the VVSG noted on the anniversary, his death remains a painful reminder of the vulnerability of social workers who work closely with people every day. The organisation stressed that safety and prevention must remain priorities, and that workers need sufficient time, clear tools, and support to do their jobs safely.
The suspect remains in pre-trial detention, with his detention extended multiple times. An expert panel has assessed him as accountable, but the Ghent council chamber must still decide whether there will be a trial or whether he will be interned. For Boone’s colleagues and the broader social work community, the question of what has truly changed remains open as the legal process continues.