Chance fund
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:02
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Isa Huizing
editor Domestic
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Isa Huizing
editor Domestic
A year after the launch of the National Homelessness Action Plan, little has improved for the homeless. This is what the organizations involved told NOS. They had drawn up the plan together with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), with the aim that no one will be homeless anymore by 2030.
Anke Jansen of Housing First Netherlands, one of the foundations committed to ending homelessness, acknowledges that the action plan is insufficient. “It contains good intentions and in theory it is a step forward. But it is not concrete enough, making it difficult to achieve the goal of ending homelessness.”
While homelessness has long been seen as a healthcare problem, since the action plan it has been approached as a housing problem. It focuses on the ‘housing first’ principle, in other words: first a house and then the rest. This approach has been a success in Finland. It was introduced there ten years ago and since then the number of homeless people has halved.
Illusion
But in the Netherlands, the approach is having difficulty getting off the ground due to the housing crisis. The organizations involved also lack national guidance. “The plan is aimed at stimulating and inspiring instead of containing concrete goals. As a result, you cannot hold anyone to anything and you are dependent on ambitious councilors,” says Willem van Sermondt of the Kansfonds, a foundation that is committed to end homelessness.
The organizations are happy that there is a common goal. The aim to give people a house first is widely supported.
Thijs Honig, director of the Den Bosch Social Shelter, focused on the ‘housing first’ principle last year and helped 46 people find a home. “I used to think that you could solve homelessness with care, but that is an illusion. A house offers people a safe place, a future. And so people can participate in society again.”
One of those people is Patrick:
Patrick became homeless, but the shelter helped him find a home
However, how homelessness is tackled still varies greatly from municipality to municipality. This creates legal inequality, says Judith Fischer, spokesperson for SamenThuis 2030. “In this way, it is very decisive in which municipality you become homeless.”
Outgoing State Secretary Van Ooijen says that more should be focused on housing and less on shelter. “I expect all regions to bring their policy and implementation in line with the National Action Plan in the coming year, with a focus on prevention and affordable housing. Discussions will be held with municipalities where this is not possible.”
More diverse image
The figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) last year looked hopeful. After years of rising the number of homeless people, it had fallen to almost 27,000 people last year. But at the shelter they saw the opposite. “It was as busy as ever and it is still packed,” says the Salvation Army.
In October, a new counting method provided a more diverse picture of homeless people than before. With this counting method, a broader group of people is considered homeless. People who, for example, temporarily stay with family or friends, so-called bank hoppers, were also included.
The census in a number of Brabant municipalities showed that young people and women are often homeless. The intention is that this more specific count will be carried out in more municipalities next spring.
‘Long-term process’
Statistics Netherlands has adopted the broader approach, but the method amounts to an estimate. According to Jansen of Housing First Netherlands, it is important that the data is more accurate. “It is not known how large the group actually is, who they are and where they are. Once there is a better picture of this, a better response can be made, for example, how many homes are needed.”
State Secretary Van Ooijen also wants to have better insight into the group of homeless people. “We worked very hard during the first year of the action plan to set this up, but a truly adequate national picture is a very long-term process.”
2024-01-03 21:02:18
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