The housing movement had worked very hard to prepare the demonstration, both in terms of content and infrastructure. This resulted in relatively much media attention, a lot of diversity among the demonstrators, fiery speeches and the continuous call to take action and organize ourselves against the housing crisis.
Arguments
- The policy of infinite rent increase after rent increase has led to unaffordable rents for large groups of tenants. A quarter of tenants are in financial trouble after paying their rent. That concerns more than 800,000 people.
- Tenants are saddled with an (income-related) rent increase every year, but are left in homes with overdue maintenance, defects, damp and mould, and often see no improvement in services or living pleasure for years.
- Rents are rising faster than wages. Since 1993, rents have risen by 153 percent. Inflation rose by 108 percent during that period, and the average increase in collective labor agreement wages remained stuck at 106 percent.
- The percentage of our income that we pay for housing is on average highest for tenants, at 36.3 percent. More and more people are excluded from public housing and are forced to live in the overpriced private sector. Tenants between the ages of 18 and 25 spend more than half of their disposable income.
- By linking the rent increase to the increase in average collective labor agreement wages or inflation, structural tax relief will not be achieved and growing poverty and inequality will not be tackled.
- The bill for the housing crisis is being passed on to households that have already been made vulnerable, while structural investments in public housing by the government have been lacking for years.
- The landlord levy, the tax on regulated rental properties, was abolished as of 1 January 2023. Housing associations have passed on the landlord levy, which has now cost them more than 13 billion euros, in higher rents. Tenants have paid this tax, amounting to almost two months of the annual rent. Now that the landlord levy has been abolished, rents must go down.
- While housing corporations reinvest their income in social housing, they still have to pay profit tax. On average, almost a month's profit tax goes to the state treasury for each social housing unit, 1.4 billion euros annually. So money is being taken away from people with the lowest incomes. Housing corporations must be democratized and fight together with tenants for the abolition of this profit tax, instead of passing the bill on to tenants.
- Organisations such as Aedes and the Woonbond, which claim to represent the voice and interests of tenants, facilitate and legitimise the business model and policy of infinite rent increases by striving for 'moderate' rent increases.
- Due to policy efforts aimed at restricting social housing and increasing market forces in the rental sector, rents have risen dramatically.
- Slum landlords and institutional investors realize enormous returns and big profits. They do this in addition to the annual rent increase with high starting rents, rent increases upon transfer, purchase, speculation and liberalization of hundreds of thousands of (social) homes.
- Although many rents are above the maximum allowable rent, this is hardly enforced.
- Housing struggle is a class struggle. By raising rents annually, landlords perpetuate their powerful position in society, protected by the government. While housing should be a right for everyone, it has become a commodity for the owning class.
- Billions are spent annually on mortgage interest deductions. In 2024, the damage amounted to more than 10 billion euros. This increases rental prices and the inequality between tenants and buyers. Buyers are ninety times richer than tenants.
- The rent increase has a severe impact on the security of existence and the quality of life of tenants and their families. High rent translates into various forms of poverty.
- The government is focusing on treating the symptoms, while housing associations have started to behave like businesses after privatisation in the 1990s.
- Gentrification and financialization have turned housing into a commodity rather than a basic right guaranteed by the government.
Crack the housing crisis
During the march, slogans were shouted non-stop, such as “Fight, fight, fight, housing is a right”, “Houses for people, not for profit”, “All flex? Fuck flex!”, “Rent-Sta-King”, “Not temporary, not expensive, we want social housing”, “Rent down”, “Law or no law, squatting continues”, and “Demolish the power of capital, housing for all of us”. Among the participants were, in addition to anarchists, revolutionary socialists and communists, also members of parties such as the SP, PvdA/GroenLinks and the Party for the Animals. Students, other flex tenants and squatters walked side by side with elderly people who have seen the rent of their social housing increase more and more. And of course, housing struggle groups such as the Bond Precaire Woonvormen (BPW), We Refuse The Rent Increase, Not for sale and Housing protest Utrecht clearly visible and audible.
A beautiful moment occurred during the walk, when a newly squatted building was unveiled with the giant banner “Squat the housing crisis”. At the top of the banner, which was lowered from one of the floors of the building, it was written that it belonged to the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). As the afternoon progressed, it looked as if the building would be kept for the squatting movement for the time being. The motto “Squat the vacant property” was put into practice in a wonderful way last Saturday.
Harry Westerink (Doorbraak.eu)
Below is Senna's speech, which she spoke on behalf of the BPW and the (former) residents of the Ravel, a former office building at Ravellaan 96 in Utrecht where approximately 180 flexible tenants lived.
Welcome again everyone, and good to have you here.
My name is Senna and today I am speaking on behalf of the Bond Precaire Woonvormen, also known as the BPW. The BPW is an association that fights for people who live temporarily, insecurely or too expensively, or are homeless. Hundreds of thousands of people are currently excluded from a decent place to live, a basic need and a right. We are taking action for this on the basis of solidarity.
I didn't just join the BPW. I'm in the middle of it myself. This year I lived in the Ravel, here in Utrecht, where 180 people built up tenancy rights after a temporary contract. To prevent this, we are all being evicted and replaced. The building is now being guarded, in anticipation of a new batch of rightsless flex residents who will end up in musical chairs again. Young people are simply being made homeless here. And that is a deliberate political policy. And crooked. Tenants are not interchangeable!
And even though we are evicted, we still won something. Because people became aware of it and there was broad solidarity and resistance against this injustice! We did not just pack our things and leave. But unfortunately, it went wrong again here because of money and the dumping of social responsibility on the individual by the municipality: placing profit above housing rights. Fuck flex, and stop evictions! Not temporary, not expensive, we want social housing!
Now I live too expensively: the four of us pay more than 3,000 euros in rent per month. And from July onwards, another 100 euros per person. I myself pay 750 euros for a children's room, as a 22-year-old teacher. My landlord circumvents the point system for rooms, and the Affordable Rent Act does not apply to me. Landlords profit from the housing shortage, because you can't find anything affordable anywhere!
So even if you’re evicted, it doesn’t stop there. Because temporary and too expensive is not a coincidence. It’s the result of a conscious policy, to turn a human right into a commodity. Temporary and too expensive are two sides of the same coin. Housing capitalism: a system that fuels housing insecurity and increases inequality. My suffering is their profit.
My own situation is not unique. It happens on a large scale that people go from temporary to insecure to homeless. That is why we need to unite and act as a collective. Locally in your own building, citywide, nationally as today, and internationally. Move, do not give up, because only together will we win this. For example, we can already celebrate that through collective actions the landlord levy has been abolished, the rent freeze is being discussed, temporary contracts have been partially abolished and hundreds of evictions have been stopped. That is all due to the pressure on politics from the housing movement.
Government, invest in broad public housing, low rents and sustainability. Every year, more than 10 billion goes to mortgage interest deduction and homeowners. Why not to our public housing? We are the owners of this social capital; it is time that we free the corporations and housing from the hands of managers, neo-liberal politicians and the "market" that does not serve our interests. Houses for people, not for profit!
But it is over with begging from politics, and over with asking for please and maybe. We are going to demand it. We demand that politics does what they have to do! We demand 100 percent say, housing security, affordability, sustainability and public housing for everyone. We make no concessions in this. Our weapon is broad solidarity. We will not let ourselves be played off against each other in this battle by capital and politics.
So unite, stand up for yourself, and find the way that suits you. The Bond Precaire Woonvormen has several local groups all over the country. So you are welcome to join. But the most important thing is that together, all of us, we build a solidarity movement.
What time is it? Solidarity!
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