Makeshift fund
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 10.02pm
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Isa Huizing
Domestic publisher
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Isa Huizing
Domestic publisher
A year after the launch of the National Homelessness Action Plan, little has improved for homeless people. This is what the organizations involved told NOS. They had developed the plan together with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), with the aim that no one would be left homeless by 2030.
Anke Jansen of Housing First Netherlands, one of the foundations working to end homelessness, acknowledges that the action plan is insufficient. “It has good intentions and is a step forward in theory. But it isn’t concrete enough, making it difficult to achieve the goal of ending homelessness.”
Although homelessness has long been considered a health problem, since the action plan it has been addressed as a housing problem. It is based on the “housing first” principle, in other words: first a house and then the rest. This approach has been successful in Finland. It was introduced there ten years ago and since then the number of homeless people has halved.
Illusion
But in the Netherlands this approach is struggling to take off due to the real estate crisis. The organizations involved also lack national leadership. “The plan aims to stimulate and inspire rather than contain concrete objectives. As a result, you cannot constrain anyone and depend on ambitious advisors,” says Willem van Sermondt of Kansfonds, a foundation that works to end homelessness.
Organizations are happy that there is a common goal. The goal of housing people 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 thought we could solve the problem of homelessness carefully, but that’s an illusion. A house gives 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, the way homelessness is addressed still varies greatly from municipality to municipality. This creates legal inequality, says Judith Fischer, spokeswoman for SamenThuis 2030. “This way it is very decisive in which municipality you become homeless.”
Outgoing State Secretary Van Ooijen says there should be more focus on housing and less on shelters. “I expect all regions to align their policies and their implementation with the National Action Plan in the coming year, with a particular focus on prevention and affordable housing. Discussions will be held with municipalities where this is not possible. “
More diverse image
Data provided by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) last year looked promising. After years of rising homelessness, the number dropped to nearly 27,000 last year. But at the shelter they saw the opposite. “It was as busy as ever and is still full,” says the Salvation Army.
In October, a new counting method provided a more diverse picture of homelessness than before. With this counting method, a larger group of people are considered homeless. Also included were people who, for example, temporarily stay with family or friends, the so-called bank hoppers.
The census carried out in several municipalities in Brabant 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 taken the broadest approach, but the method amounts to an estimate. According to Jansen from 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 we have a better picture of the situation, we can give a better answer, for example, how many houses are needed.”
State Secretary Van Ooijen also wants to have a deeper insight into the homeless group. “We worked very hard during the first year of the action plan to make this happen, but a truly adequate national framework is a long-term process.”
2024-01-03 21:02:18
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