Haarlemmerbuurt residents, businesses fed up with harassment by addicted homeless people

Residents and entrepreneurs in Amsterdam’s Haarlemmerbuurt say they are fed up with ongoing nuisance caused in part by addicted homeless people. The municipality installed camera surveillance in the neighborhood this week, but many say it is not enough.

Most recently, witnesses told AT5 that police officers had to arrest a troublemaker inside a supermarket on Thursday.

Hospitality entrepreneur Menno Visser said the problems are not new. “Our customers on the terrace are being harassed. The beer is taken away. Cigarettes are taken away. Continuously money is asked for. And if you don’t give that, you are sworn at.”

Street manager Sheila Prommenschenckel said a supermarket on Haarlemmerdijk reported about 10 incidents a day. “In the summer it is always worse, I must say. But it seems this year is worse than the years before.”

Prommenschenckel said she hopes the cameras will act as a deterrent. “But if it works preventively here, where do people go then? So it becomes a bit of a waterbed effect. And I find that a bit worrying, for a city like Amsterdam.”

Visser said camera surveillance alone remains insufficient. “I think there needs to be more enforcement.”