Not All Homeless People in the Netherlands Get Priority for Rental Housing, Couch Surfers Left Behind

Dutch homeless priority for rental housing, Digi Mart USA News: Not everyone who is homeless will get priority when searching for a rental home. Especially people who are forced to sleep on the couches of friends or family fall outside the existing arrangements.

“That must come to an end,” says lobbyist Geert Ritsema of the national collaborative organization Dakloosheid Voorbij! on the EO program Dit is de Dag.

Part of the homeless population will receive urgency for finding housing once new legislation takes effect. However, according to Ritsema, this does not apply to everyone.

“There are people who live in their cars, sleep on friends’ couches, or stay in leaky tents at campsites. Also families with children and people who simply work.

That really has to end,” Ritsema said.

Sander Heinsman, chairman of the Executive Board of housing association Portaal, also sees that this group falls between the cracks. In some municipalities, people from social shelters already receive priority for rental housing.

However, for so-called couch surfers this is usually not arranged.

According to Heinsman, the way the Netherlands allocates housing also needs to change. The current system, in which people with the longest registration period generally have the best chance, does not sufficiently match the housing shortage, he said.

Ritsema also observes that municipalities sometimes too readily judge that people can take care of themselves. He cites the example of a young mother who ends up on the street with small children due to domestic violence.

According to him, a municipality could also say she is self-reliant. “We must be very careful with that term.

There are certainly people who can take care of themselves, but it is also often misused as an excuse not to give housing to people who desperately need it.”

The collaborative organization believes that everyone without a home of their own should be able to receive priority in finding housing. On Tuesday the organization presented the petition ‘Laat mensen niet wachten, maar wonen’ (Don’t Make People Wait, Let Them Live) to the House of Representatives.

More than fifty organizations support the call.