BOND PRECAIRE WOONVORMEN

Rent strike as a solution against poverty politics?

The history of the last century seems to be repeating itself, great housing shortage, extreme rent increases, falling wages, and more and more precarious forms of living. The financial crisis caused by junk mortgages is now passed on to the tenants via a structural landlord levy of 2 billion euros per year. from recently published research shows that 28% of tenants live below the poverty line. With the continuation of this rental policy, even 35% of tenants are living in poverty in 2017.

The BPW considers it a missed opportunity that local Tenants' Associations and the Dutch Housing Association organize little or no actions with the tenants involved and continue to believe in polder solutions and consultation tables. Minister Blok has now often shown that he is deaf to participation and is closing tenant organizations simply out of consultation. That is why it is now time to jointly set up a BLOCKkade for this scandalous policy.

We call on tenants' associations and tenants in the country to show you your non-liberal side. A rent strike could be an appropriate response to the poverty policy pursued by the cabinet on the backs of the least well-off.

Rental strikes were in the previous century an effective means of combating rent increases. They were also incentives to get the government to provide credit for more affordable housing. Because if 28 % of the tenants live below the poverty line, the limit is of course full. It is therefore time to leave the consultation tables and enforce the right to affordable housing and a roof for everyone, together with tenants and home seekers. In that regard, we can hope from our eastern neighborsn, many tenants' associations, tenants and action groups are already working well together and have won many victories.

Source photo Image bank Amsterdam City Archives.

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