Organizers hope for 15,000 participants at Sunday Rotterdam housing protest

Organizers of the second large protest against rising rental prices, high real estate costs, and an overall shortage of affordable housing said they hope to draw between 10,000 and 15,000 demonstrators to the Afrikaanderpark in Rotterdam on Sunday.

"Houses for people, not for profit," is the slogan of the protest, organized by Housing Rise, a conglomerate of sixteen organizations planning the protest. Organizers chose the location because, against the wishes of many residents, part of the social housing in the Tweebosbuurt is being demolished to make way for homes in the middle and high price range.

"We have indeed deliberately chosen this place, if only to give a shot in the arm to the people in Rotterdam-Zuid whose rental homes are being demolished. Not only in the Tweebosbuurt, but in many other places in and outside of Rotterdam, people are suffering because of the current housing policy. CBS figures show that 90,000 homes in the Netherlands are vacant, a third of which have been so for longer than a year," says Mustapha Eaisaouiyen of the Woonopstand organization.

Housing Rise is demanding that action be taken to improve what they perceive as the dire situation in the housing market. The participating organizations, ranging from political parties to interest groups such as the Woonbond, trade union FNV, and various tenants associations, denounce the long waiting lists for social housing, the high rents in the free sector, the steep housing market, and the rising number of homeless people.

Protestors are demanding guarantees on the availability and affordability of housing and housing security. They also want to lessen market forces, lower rents, and ban temporary rental contracts. Housing Rise calls for independent support for residents in their homes, neighborhoods, and cities.

After the Amsterdam demonstration, where about 15,000 demonstrators were present at Dam Square last month, and the upcoming Rotterdam protest, two more housing demonstrations are scheduled for November 13 at Malieveld in The Hague and November 28 in Groningen.