20% homeless people in Netherlands are children; Third of adults are women

Around twenty percent of the homeless people in the Netherlands are children. Another fifth are between the ages of 18 and 27. About a third of the adults are women, the Volkskrant reported based on the second ETHOS count by the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and the Kansfonds.

Dozens of social organizations, neighborhood teams, community police officers, doctors, social workers, youth care, and volunteers counted 6,063 homeless people in six regions with 55 municipalities. “Homelessness is diverse and affects very different people,” program leader Willem van Sermondt of the Kansfonds told the newspaper. “Not only adults, but also many children live in undesirable circumstances.”

Homeless women, often with children, typically find a place to sleep with family or friends, in a temporary shelter, or in a holiday home or campsite. Only a small proportion sleep on the street. “Almost three-quarters of single parents are homeless,” HU researcher Sandra Schel said. “They become homeless after a divorce, for example, or when they flee a violent relationship.”

ETHOS stands for European Typology of Homelessness and Housing Exclusion and defines homelessness as a lack of proper housing. The second count included the regions Breda, Hart van Brabant, Holland Rijnland, Westelijke Mijnstreek, Gelderland-Zuid, and West-Friesland. The first Dutch ETHOS count last year only included the regions of Den Bosch and Oss and counted approximately 1,500 homeless people, a quarter of whom were children.

The results of the first and second counts generally provide “a consistent picture,” the researchers said. “The number of homeless people counted is once again alarmingly high.”

According to the researchers, their counting methods are more complete than Statistics Netherlands’ (CBS). The statistics office counts the adult homeless people registered with municipalities and estimates the “less visible” ones. According to the latest CBS figures, there were around 30,600 homeless people in the Netherlands at the start of last year.

“Many homeless people are not included in existing figures on homelessness because of their age, their assumed self-reliance, or their legal status,” the researchers said. For example, additional qualitative research shows there is little insight into homelessness among migrant workers, who often don’t register with municipalities out of ignorance, fear of negative consequences, or because their employer keeps them hidden from authorities.

The next ETHOS count will happen next year in nine regions, including large cities like Amsterdam and The Hague. The following one in 2026 already has eleven regions signed up.