Organizations urge MP's to prioritize housing for homeless people

Homeless people should be able to get priority for housing more easily, according to a collective of organizations named Dakloosheid Voorbij! On Tuesday, the organizations will present a manifesto to the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament.

Dozens of organizations have signed the call, including several housing corporations, the platform for people in mental healthcare, MIND, and the National Student Union (LSVb).

With an urgency declaration, homeless people can be given priority for social housing. According to a bill on this subject, only a small proportion of homeless people will receive such a declaration, explained Dakloosheid Voorbij!

This only concerns people who are in a shelter or have been in a shelter or have been discharged from a mental healthcare institution, for example. But the collective wants to give a broader group priority. “Adjust the law so that young people who hop from couch to couch, people who are forced to stay with family without being able to register there, or even spend the night in cars or caravans, are also recognized as urgent housing seekers,” the manifesto states.

Currently, politicians want unhoused people’s situation to first deteriorate before they become eligible for priority, said Nil Şendil of Dakloosheid Voorbij!. According to Şendil, homeless people looking for housing can easily demonstrate that they have nowhere to live because they are not registered at an address.

The National Action Plan for Homelessness states that the government wants no one to be homeless by 2030.