Suppose you are tired of having to wait for years for an affordable social rental home. And then they become en masse sold right under your nose. Well. Then you take matters into your own hands! Thus it happened.

This afternoon, a group of activists occupied a social rental home in Amsterdam-West. The house is about to be sold soon. It is high time that the gentrification policy of Poor Out, Rich In! will be stopped. The BPW has been drawing attention to this for some time and is therefore pleased with this action. Social rental homes in popular locations are being sold at a rapid pace in Amsterdam and other cities. Minister Blok is on a crusade to decimate and sell out the public rental sector. In the meantime, the 'residual group' is increasingly allowed to stay only temporarily in the increasingly scarce amount of social rental housing. As BPW, we adapt to that. Security of existence is a right! Not only reserved for buyers or people with money. Right to City for all! We call on everyone to support this wonderful initiative.

The action was organized by the Tenants' Association Oud-West, Right to City, FairCity and the Student Squatting Consultation Hour. The house has been declared 'not for sale'.

Do you also want to become active? join the BPW or another/mentioned active tenants' association.

Read the below Press statement   (picture of socialisme.nu)

PRESS RELEASE OCCUPANCY 'NOT FOR SALE'

Amsterdam May 18, 2016

On Wednesday May 18, 2016, former alderman Roel Walraven, together with the Tenants' Association Oud-West, occupied an empty house and declared it Not For Sale.

In protest against the sale of the social housing stock in Amsterdam, the door was festively opened and temporarily withdrawn from sale by concerned residents from Amsterdam West.
For years, politicians and corporations have made great promises to keep the city accessible to everyone. Yet more and more social rental homes are disappearing for sale.

We welcomed local residents and everyone who supports our struggle here to discuss, organize and protest against the housing shortage over the coming week. Made possible in part by Tenants' Association Oud-West, Right to the City, FairCity and the Student Squatters' Consultation Hour.

Amsterdam is not for sale!

It is now certain that the stock of affordable rental housing in Amsterdam will continue to shrink. Our beloved city is rapidly becoming inaccessible and unaffordable for the ordinary Amsterdammer. We will not be pushed out of our neighborhood by housing associations, nor will we be fooled by administrators who are jointly responsible for this social destruction policy.

This council recently signed an agreement in which it was decided that even more homes will disappear from the sale and free rental sector. The local tenants' associations refused to sign it.

Also this year, the monthly costs for sitting tenants will rise again and the housing associations are making maximum use of temporary half-year, 5-year and flex contracts. This is to prevent tenants from having to offer security and to make it easier for them to evict their home. Corporations, which supposedly have a social task, are opening the door wide for the gradual abolition of housing protection, which has been fought so hard for years.

In this way, the city will be closed to anyone who is below average or above average income.

We are fed up!

Since last year, many tenants' associations and neighborhood groups have been arguing for a temporary stop to the sale and putting them on the free market until a concrete solution is found for the dire situation. This has always proved 'unnegotiable' for the municipality and housing associations, so apparently the consultation has failed.

As long as the administrators of this city do not promise anything to turn the tide, we will continue to campaign against the gentrification and commercialization of the city and the flexibilization and marketing of housing, a primary necessity of life.

We welcomed local residents and everyone who supports our action at the Borgerstraat 73!