no priority on social housing for status holders
PvdA councilor Fatihy shares this point of view after a council question that coalition parties GroenLinks and D, together with Bij1 and Denkn, ask the council. Those parties know that the Commission will follow Utrecht’s line. There, the city council plans to give status holders priority for six weeks in the allocation of social housing. In this way, Utrecht wants to catch up with the backlog that the city, like Amsterdam, has in housing status holders.
Abdi recorded the situation in Ter Apel, where asylum seekers regularly sleep outside because there is no place in the application centre, ‘inhumane and unfortunately not new’. According to the party, the cabinet should therefore provide sufficient housing for ‘structural humane reception for refugees’ to combat both the asylum crisis and the housing crisis.
“Amsterdam will always remain in solidarity”, says Abdi. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that all vulnerable groups in our city, from homeless people to young people, die with the current scarcity on the market. That is why we as PvdA think it is about vulnerable groups. We are still waiting for the Commission’s response.”
Without the PvdA it seems difficult to achieve a majority in the council, the plans can become concrete.
Searching for the right way
Kris van der Veen of GroenLinks, says that his party has not yet decided in fact. “Utrecht has a radical solution to this problem and is also the first municipality to come up with such a solution. I am especially curious how the college views this.” Suleyman Aslami of D66 joins his colleague from GroenLinks. “As Amsterdam, we have a duty to accommodate both status holders and other vulnerable groups,” he says. “I am especially curious what we can get and how we as Amsterdam can contribute to settling the asylum crisis.”
“Last year we housed 450 status holders too few”, says Van der Veen, who believes that the city must come up with a ‘solution’ to fulfill its task. “It is important that Amsterdam comes up with one. And if Utrecht’s solution is not the right way, according to the college, I would like to know what it would be.”
Co-signer of the ask Sheher Khan of Denk to be disappointed if not all signatories vote in favor on a ballot. “We have all signed the questions,” said Khan, who also signed the target on D66 and GL.
Other groups on the kneel
“By now giving priority to housing only to status holders, other groups are in trouble,” says VVD councilor Myron von Gerhardt. He also thinks that pushing for such a plan would cause unrest in the city. “That can never have been intended. I can well imagine that for the many people who have been on the waiting list for years, this is extremely unfair.”
Volt says, with the party chairman Juliet Broersen, that he first wants to know how many status holders can be received with a priority of six weeks and waiting with delay Amsterdam would still have after that. “It is terrible that people are now sleeping in front of Ter Apel, we should not by definition shy away from radical solutions. But in practical terms, adopting this Utrecht example will help solve the reception crisis at all?”
Alderman Rutger Groot Wassink (Social Affairs) previously stated that he ‘completely agrees that status holders should be given a home’. “But we are in a housing crisis and as a municipality we cannot solve it alone. We need direction, money and help from the government.” A saying from the alderman states that he can only respond once the written questions have been answered.