Bannerdrop Bay House: Woonopstand takes action against unaffordable new construction
The Dutch national action coalition Woonopstand, which organized a large demonstration in Rotterdam in 2021, emphasizes that housing policies in the Netherlands are still failing. It is incomprehensible that so much unaffordable new housing is being built, while a hundred thousand people are homeless and hundreds of thousands more households live in too expensive, insecure or temporary housing. To tackle the acute housing crisis, affordable new construction and expansion of the social rental sector are needed.
Bay House: symbol for failed housing policy
Bay House with its 110 unaffordable apartments symbolizes the failed housing policy that creates housing inequality and growing insecurity. That right here the apartment 'The Box' was sold for almost 10 million makes it painfully clear where the priorities of our politicians lie: not in building as many affordable homes as possible for people who do not have their own place to live, but in making the city attractive for the rich and in making profits for project developers and investors like Frame Real Estate. Bay House is located between the Katendrecht and Afrikaanderwijk districts in South Rotterdam, where the municipality of Rotterdam has been pursuing an aggressive gentrification policy for years that drives people out of their homes and breaks up communities. It was not without reason that five United Nations Special Rapporteurs in 2021 warned for the disastrous consequences of Rotterdam's housing policy.
Woonopstand demands a radically fair housing policy
With this action, Woonopstand follows up the housing protests that were held throughout the Netherlands in 2021-22. Woonprotest occupied in October 2023 the office of the Vereniging van Institutionele Beleggers in Vastgoed (IVBN) and called for expropriation. More actions will follow soon.
Woonopstand demands a radically just housing policy:
- Prioritize ending homelessness and preventing precarious and overpriced housing.
- Invest in widely accessible public housing: build 100% socially and affordable and stop the demolition, sale and liberalization of social housing.
- Expropriate all private landowners and slum landlords: democratize ownership and decision-making about housing and support cooperative housing. Cities, neighborhoods and homes must be in the hands of the people who live there.
- Stop the gentrification policy and treat renting and buying as equal.
- End the financialization of housing and land: housing for people not for profit.
Expose the profiteers of the housing crisis!
Call for solidarity: organizations, activists and other sympathizers: expose the profiteers of the housing crisis! Call for the expropriation of private landowners and slum landlords. Download the action package and copy and paste the text on your social media channels.
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This action was made possible by the housing movement and the Alert Fund for Youth
