Plan to scrap refugees’ priority for social housing will cost gov’t millions

The government’s plan to scrap refugees’ priority for social housing will cost millions of euros because it will result in refugees living in asylum centers for longer. There are already 20,000 refugees stuck living in asylum shelters because there are no available homes for them. Their reception costs 1.5 million euros per day. That amount will increase considerably, AD reported after a closer look at Housing Minster Mona Keijzer’s proposal and speaking with the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA).

Keijzer presented her bill that would ban municipalities from giving refugees - asylum seekers whose asylum applications were granted and now have residency in the Netherlands - priority on the waiting lists for social housing. According to the government, refugees contribute to the long waiting lists for social housing, and everyone should have the same chance of qualifying.

The explanatory memorandum to that bill states that the costs of asylum reception will increase “initially” because municipalities “will not be able to accommodate refugees in another way immediately after the ban on priority comes into effect.” That means that refugees will have to stay in asylum centers for longer, “resulting in rising costs.”

This involves considerable amounts. A place in an asylum shelter costs between 75 and 150 per person per day. “This could mean that it costs an estimated 750,000 euros to allow 10,000 asylum seekers to stay in the COA for one more day,” Keijzer wrote in the memo.

The COA is already sheltering almost 20,000 refugees waiting for a home. According to Keijzer’s amounts, that costs around 1.5 million euros per day. The COA expects that the number of refugees living in asylum shelters will increase by half this year and three-quarters in 2026.

A significant part of the current asylum reception crisis is that refugees cannot move out of asylum shelters due to the Dutch housing shortage. As a result, they occupy beds intended for new asylum seekers coming in. If each of the 20,000 waiting refugees were to move into a home, the reception crisis would largely be solved.

The COA told AD that it is still researching the consequences of the bill, but it is already clear that the new law will have a “significant” impact, a spokesperson said. “With this law, the number of people with a residency permit in our locations will only increase.” That will result in “even more expensive emergency reception locations” being needed.

Minister Marjolein Faber of Asylum plans to significantly cut spending on asylum reception from 2027. She expects fewer asylum seekers to come to the Netherlands but has not given a clear explanation of how that will be achieved. In 2027, the COA and immigration service IND will receive 80 to 85 percent less money.

The Ministry of Asylum and Migration did not answer AD’s questions about the financial consequences of Keijzer’s bill, but its press department did say in writing that “measures are needed to promote the flow” of refugees to municipalities. “These additional measures should help to reduce the high pressure on COA reception centers.” It did not say what the measures would be.