Municipalities have major backlogs in housing refugees

Many municipalities are not yet helping enough refugees find a home. In the second half of 2023, almost 23,000 asylum seekers whose applications got approved and received residency in the Netherlands had to be provided with a home. But with only one month until year’s end, almost 10,000 of these refugees are still waiting. That is evident from an analysis by the ANP of figures from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Every six months, the government determines how many refugees municipalities must find housing for. The target for the second half of 2023 also includes the backlog that the municipalities incurred in the first half of the year.

Eight in ten municipalities have not yet achieved their target for the second half of 2023. Some of them are on schedule to still manage it in the last month of this year. At least four in ten municipalities are so far behind that they had not even achieved half of their target by the end of November.

Since July, Woudenberg and Hilvarenbeek are the only municipalities that have not housed any asylum seekers who have obtained refugee status, even though the municipalities were required to do so. Following those two, the municipalities of Eemsdelta and Oldebroek are the furthest away from their targets.

Eemsdelta must accommodate 183 people with refugee status, including previous backlogs. The municipality in the province of Groningen only found suitable accommodation for ten people. The Gelderland municipality of Oldebroek has so far found housing for only 3 of the 47 people yet to be placed.

The backlog is also large in the country’s capital. Amsterdam must find accommodation for almost 2,100 refugees with residency status in the second half of 2023. Only 581 former asylum seekers received suitable housing there.

Some 45 municipalities are ahead of schedule and achieved their target by the end of November. Zaanstad, Gouda, and Alkmaar were among those that housed dozens of refugees with residency above what was required of them.