The facts speak for themselves

At the moment, there are an estimated 100,000 homeless people in the Netherlands. An equal number of twenty- and thirty-somethings are forced to live with their parents. People with crucial professions can no longer find housing in the cities where they work. And yet the minister is attacking social tenants and implementing policies that lead to even fewer social housing units. In cities such as Rotterdam, 60% of households are entitled to social housing, but there are not that many social housing units. Municipalities have been building too few social housing units for years, while the waiting lists continue to grow. The minister's statement gives the Rotterdam council and other municipalities an extra push to build even fewer social housing units.

Housing corporations have been selling, demolishing and transferring social housing to the expensive segment for years. In just over ten years, hundreds of thousands of social housing units are being lost in this way. In addition, the government is deliberately further dismantling the social housing sector; the minister's statement confirms this. The result? People with a lower and average income are effectively excluded from their own housing and are forced to live in hopeless and precarious situations. They are forced to rent far too expensive and poorly maintained homes from slum landlords. People who cannot pay high rents become homeless. The policy of the past few years has led to a doubling of the number of homeless people in 10 years. Among young people, homelessness among young people up to the age of 27 has even tripled. The current cabinet is shamelessly implementing this policy.

The consequences of Minister Keijzer's statement are disastrous. With this policy, even more young people will continue to live at home, without any prospect of independence. Homelessness will increase even further, and low-income families will remain trapped in uncertainty with all its consequences. All of this is not only a human tragedy, but also a major social failure.

Stigmatization of social tenants

The minister is not alone in her contempt for social tenants. The VVD has been labelling social housing for years as the cause of the development of “deprived neighbourhoods”. Parties such as BBB, NSC and PVV are now joining in. This stigmatisation and the refusal of the government to invest in social housing is nothing less than a class war: while the tax benefits for homeowners remain unprecedentedly high, the current government is completely abandoning social tenants and reducing them to a problem. This while they often form the backbone of our society: teachers, care providers, shop staff and others who are essential to society. Minister Keijzer does not seem to be aware that they too are entitled to social housing and cannot afford a mid-range rental home in any way, let alone a rental home in the private sector. In addition, affordability is by no means guaranteed: after the highest rent increases in 30 years in 2024, are also in 2025 again mega rent increases up to 7.7% announced by Minister Keijzer.

Parties that claim to stand up for “the average Dutch citizen” are now actively pursuing policies that disadvantage those same Dutch citizens. Social housing is not a facility, but a fundamental human right. The ongoing shortage of social housing is driving up rents in the far too expensive private sector and making even 'middle-priced' housing unattainable.

Who benefits?

The only winners of this policy are large landowners, developers and investors who profit from building expensive owner-occupied and rental homes. While they fill their pockets, people with lower and middle incomes are left out in the cold. This policy reinforces inequality and shows that the minister and the coalition have no eye for the reality of people who depend on social housing.

It is significant that this statement by the minister comes while the housing crisis in the Netherlands has been raging for years. Instead of stimulating the construction of social housing, the door to decent and affordable housing is being slammed shut even harder for hundreds of thousands of people.

A call for change

It is time for the Netherlands to break with this destructive housing policy. Municipalities must be encouraged to build social housing, and the stigmatization of social tenants must stop. Everyone has the fundamental human right to decent housing, regardless of income level, and regardless of whether the home is purchased or rented. It is up to politicians to take responsibility and defend the rights of tenants, instead of abandoning them and handing them over to the housing market. The solution is not new. It is a solution that already existed: widely accessible public housing. Vienna proves that our 'old' public housing system still works - Madrid is now following suit.

The minister must immediately retract her statement, apologize to all social tenants and home seekers, and listen to the people who are directly affected by her policy instead of listening to parasitic investors and other predatory investors. These parties are only looking for maximum return or profit maximization. That is incompatible with housing rights and affordability. The right to decent and affordable housing should be the starting point and the goal in all the policies of a Minister for Housing. Unfortunately, Minister Keijzer prefers to side with the private market, while the main players in that market have been earning disproportionately much money at the expense of tenants and home seekers for years.

A social housing district is not a disadvantaged district in the making, but a foundation for a just and equal society. If we do not intervene quickly, the housing crisis will continue to rage – with even more homeless people, even longer waiting lists and even more people who survive as residential nomads and do not know housing security. If we do not intervene quickly, this housing crisis will permanently disrupt our society, in which home ownership is the driving force of wealth inequality. It is time for a housing uprising!

Source: Woonopstand.nl

Watch the debate here:

From 3:24:25:

“Municipalities have an influence on the size of the deficit, chairman. Again, if you are going to build more than 30% social housing and especially if you already have them. Then you should not come to me if you are short of money. I also always find it a very special discussion. Because certainly also in large cities there is a big problem in finding houses for teachers, people who work in healthcare, people who work for the police. But certainly people who have been working for a while are above the limits of social housing as I just mentioned. So building social housing for these people then you are missing your target”

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