For this weekend we, a group of young people looking for housing, occupied an empty Heimstaden apartment on the Esdoornstraat in Den Bosch. We decided to do this because the waiting lists and housing crisis are enormous and we now need housing. We can no longer watch as international locust landlords privatize our public housing, put social housing up for sale or rent it out with insecure and overpriced leases.

On Sunday, April 7, the Hague squatters' movement announced the squatting of a döner shop with upstairs apartments on the Spui, which had been vacant for years. The building that ex-CDA board member Atom Zhou purchased at the end of last year has been rotting for years. This while tens of thousands of buildings are empty, hundreds of thousands are looking for a home, homeless shelters are overflowing and people are dying as a direct result of living on the street. Our housing rights continue to lose out to the property rights of a small group of investors, slum landlords and speculators who benefit from scarcity, housing insecurity and vacancy. With this action we call on the city council to take far-reaching crisis measures to guarantee housing rights, through expropriation, introduction of a vacancy ordinance and lifting the squatting ban.

The housing movement, climate movement, anti-racism movement and other movements and activist groups are joining forces: in July, the* movement was launched, a new progressive coalition of more than seventy social movements and activist groups. In the run-up to the elections and afterwards, the coalition wants to influence the political agenda for a democratic, social and anti-racist Netherlands.

The organizers of the demonstration of 17 October 2021 are currently preparing a meeting with the Rotterdam triangle (the mayor, the chief of police and the public prosecutor) to discuss the objectionable, excessive and violent police actions prior to and during the demonstration. We are pleased that ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen has agreed to act as an independent moderator. 

The National Performance Agreements on the social rental sector that are currently being drawn up are based on a further marginalization of the social rental sector. The agreements are not only insufficient to strengthen public housing, but even lead to further flexibilisation of rent and a worsening of the position of tenants. These agreements between the government, Aedes, VNG, IPO and the Woonbond will be finalized on 30 June. This should not happen!

PRESS RELEASE

The Hague, 13 May 2022

Intense conversation about Residential Revolt with the Minister of Housing: “It is incomprehensible that the Minister is allowing rents to rise; Residential uprising calls on tenants to participate en masse in the 'We refuse the rent increase' campaign 

On 2 March, Mayor Aboutaleb sent the Rotterdam City Council a letter about the evaluation of the excessive and violent police action during the Residential Revolt demonstration on 17 October 2021. Unfortunately, we note that the evaluation by the triangle is seriously inadequate and cannot be seen as a proper accountability for police action. We see no basis for the restoration of trust that is necessary for a further discussion and inform the city council that we will not accept the triangle's invitation for a dialogue.

On behalf of many tenants and home seekers who are stuck, the housing action groups urgently appeal to Minister De Jonge (Public Housing and Spatial Planning) not to allow a rent increase on 1 July 2022, and instead to freeze and lower rents and take measures. to regulate all rents, including in the free sector.

On January 31, 2022, some representatives of the housing movement had a conversation with Aedes, the sector association of housing associations, about affordability, housing security and equal access to housing for tenants and house seekers. Unfortunately, Aedes does not want to comply with our demands. We are preparing for tougher actions. Of course we remain open to the conversation, but the ball is now in Aedes's court.

In a letter to the Rotterdam city council, Mayor Aboutaleb says that he considers the motion 'Evaluation in dialogue' that was adopted by the council on November 11, 2021 "discontinued". However, there is as yet no public view from the police/triangle and no discussion has taken place between the triangle and Woonopstand. Residential uprising responds in a letter to the city council.