Message via Woonprotest Utrecht | It has now been almost two years since we demonstrated en masse on the Jaarbeursplein for our right to live. It was the start of Woonprotest Utrecht. The housing shortage has gotten completely out of hand and now politicians finally seem to be waking up a bit. The change comes in very small steps. Two years later, a number of things have changed, for example the landlord levy has been abolished and Utrecht has a vacancy ordinance.

The national action coalition Woonopstand presents its vision document, a blueprint for a radically just approach to the created housing crisis in the Netherlands. The right to decent housing is still being violated on a large scale by the government, as the UN rapporteur also confirmed after his visit to the Netherlands.

On November 18, 2023, Woonopstand took action at the luxury new construction project Bay House in Rotterdam. In the early morning, a banner was attached to the building with the text 'Recapture the neighborhoods, expropriate the rich'. Woonopstand thus makes visible the profiteers of the housing crisis: the project developers, investors and the large landowners who have turned housing into a revenue model. In collaboration with De Rode Lap, we had the slogan of the banner printed on stickers, so that everyone can now help make visible the countless unaffordable new construction projects that are currently being built. Because while systematic human rights violations are taking place by undermining our right to live, making homelessness an increasing problem and waiting lists for social housing increasing, construction is mainly done for the rich.

On December 2, a broad coalition of action groups demonstrated on Dam Square in Amsterdam against the racist and fascist scapegoat policy of Wilders and the PVV, among others. Mustapha spoke on behalf of the Woonopstand action coalition and emphasized in his speech that we must not allow population groups to be played off against each other. Read his speech below.

Today Woonopstand is taking action at the luxury new construction project Bay House in Rotterdam. In the early morning, a banner was attached to the building with the text 'Retake the neighborhoods, expropriate the rich'. Woonopstand exposes the profiteers of the housing crisis: the project developers, investors and large landowners who see housing as a revenue model. Woonopstand demands that only affordable and social housing is being built, an end to the gentrification of our neighborhoods, and expropriation of all private landowners and slumlords so that cities, neighborhoods and housing are returned to the hands of the people who live there.

On October 28, Woonprotest will take action against the housing crisis, the real estate industry, government mismanagement and the ambitionless plans of most political parties. With new, concrete and immediate demands.

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.

On Tuesday 18 April, the House of Representatives will vote on the Fixed Lease Contracts bill. There will also be three amendments from the SP and three amendments from the VVD and CDA. While the SP's amendments actually expand the protection of housing security, the VVD and CDA are only trying to erode it further. The Action Coalition Housing Rebellion expresses its horror at this attempt. We demand housing security for everyone and therefore do not accept any deterioration.

We believe that the municipality of Zaanstad should do its utmost to guarantee housing as a right for everyone again. Too often we see that housing is used as a revenue model for slumlords, investors, contractors and others who give more priority to their
own profits than the right to housing.

The Housing Action Days 2023: European citizens fight together for the right to housing!

The Housing Action Days 2023: European citizens collectively fight for the right to housing. From March 24 to April 2, 2023, thousands of people in more than 40 cities across Europe will take to the streets for the right to housing and the city to denounce the skyrocketing housing costs. In 2021, the Dutch government signed the Lisbon Declaration, in which 27 European member states have agreed to end homelessness by 2030. Yet homelessness continues to increase, and more and more people live in a temporary, insecure and too expensive way. The government of the Netherlands and the other European member states are doing too little to solve this growing humanitarian crisis.