Reception of Ukrainians at the expense of the anti-squat population: ‘Social and can lead to tensions’

VideoThe accelerating search for large reception centers for tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees is causing other groups of home seekers to lose their temporary housing. “This is antisocial and can lead to tensions between groups of people.”

Cyril Roseman

March 11. 2022
Last updated:
20:39

Across the Netherlands, gyms, hotels and empty buildings are being prepared to receive thousands of Ukrainian refugees. The security areas agreed with the Council of Ministers that there would be 50,000 places. However, this also means that other home seekers lose their temporary accommodations or are forced to move internally.

In Zuidhorn, the municipality sets its sights on an old school as a shelter. The eight anti-squatting residents were told by the management organization that they must move out within 28 days (the established standard for living against squatting). In Krimpen aan den IJssel, the same applies to Residents anti-squat in the former music school† Edam-Volendam municipality choose For a former nursing home with about seventy rooms in Edam as a shelter† However, the building has twelve anti-squat rooms already inhabited. These residents are allowed to stay, but they have to move to the ground floor, and Ukrainians move to the floors above.

Existing residents say they understand that Ukrainians should be taken care of. But they find it painful that they have lost their living space as a result. Some feared that they might end up on the street, life against squatting was just an option for them because there were no other alternatives in the unprecedentedly tight housing market.

Salina van Auveren, from anti-squat old school music in Krimpen aan den IJssel. © Frank de Roo

Making people interchangeable without offering an alternative is antisocial. Everyone deserves housing insurance.

Abel Heijmans, Unstable Housing Forms Bond

“Making people interchangeable without offering an alternative is antisocial. Everyone deserves housing security,” says Abel Heijmans of Bond Precaire Woonvorm. “Flexibility and government withdrawal of rent rights can easily lead to tensions between groups living in precariousness. . These risks have been blamed by the failed government. , which in itself cannot guarantee the right to housing, is strange.”

This is the danger

The municipality of Krimpen aan den IJssel says that “people are not just put on the street” and wants to talk to residents of the music school. In the municipality of Westerkwartier which includes the Zuidhorn, Says a spokesperson for RTV Noord: ,, It sounds hard and sour, but that’s the danger of living against squatting. “

With the anti-squat housing, the owners prevent the building from being left empty or already squatting. Anti-squat residents pay low rent, but they also have lower rights. Zwerfkei Beheer, which manages several properties in Randstad, states that “there is currently a great demand for large reception areas”. “But we will always take the population into account.”