Large cities struggling to accommodate homeless people

Large cities in the Netherlands are struggling to accommodate the increasing number of homeless people in need of shelter, Trouw reports after speaking to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, Amersfoort, and Den Bosch.

The shortages are so significant that even people who are legally entitled to shelter risk having to sleep outside. In Amersfoort, the municipality had to resort to handing out tents in October. “We really want to,” a spokesperson for the municipality of Utrecht told Trouw. “But there are simply too many people and not enough shelter.”

Waiting lists are growing for both acute shelters - usually dormitories and shared rooms - and long-term residential care. The idea is that people move out of acute shelters to longer-term accommodations as quickly as possible so that they can start rebuilding their lives. But in practice, they’re often stuck in large shared halls for almost a year.

There are several causes behind the shortage of shelter space, the cities told Trouw. The Hague and Amsterdam both mentioned an increase in “economic homelessness” - people with paid work and without mental health or addiction problems who simply can’t find an affordable place to stay. This often happens after a divorce or loss of income.

Another complicating factor is the Homelessness Action Plan: First a Home, agreed upon by the municipalities at the end of last year. The plan focuses on creating homes for homeless people because more beds in dormitories only treat the symptoms. The government pushed 65 million euros into the project.

But money alone can’t create more homes in the Netherlands’ housing shortage. Homeless people end up on the same waiting lists as international students and refugees. Trouw’s survey showed that the large cities spent less than half of their Action Plan budget this year. “The problem is not in euros, but in the lack of housing,” Den Bosch alderman Paul Slikker said.

“We are now a year further, and the problems have increased,” director Esmé Wiegman of the shelter sector organization Valente told the newspaper. “Increasing the outflow from reception locations is extremely difficult without housing. However, arranging large-scale additional receptions is also not desirable. That means a huge area of tension for our members.”