PVV tries again: rental houses first to the Dutch

ANP

A street with social housing in The Hague

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 17:56

Social rental housing must be given priority to people with Dutch nationality. That is the essence of an initiative bill that the PVV has submitted today. According to the largest opposition party, the Dutch are discriminated against in the housing market, because status holders are often given priority when allocating rental houses.

It is not the first time that the PVV has tried to change the way in which scarce rental properties are distributed. In 2021, the party submitted a proposal that went less far than the current one: municipalities would no longer be allowed to give priority to asylum seekers with a residence status.

That proposal was rejected by a majority of the House of Representatives in June last year. Yet the PVV is now coming up with a plan again: this time precisely to give priority to the Dutch.

21 years on waiting list

There is a structural shortage of around 300,000 homes in the Netherlands. PVV leader Wilders says he knows an example of people who have been on the waiting list for a social rental home for 21 years. According to him, there are also people who are married and have children who are forced to live with their parents or parents-in-law for years.

“Pure discrimination,” says Wilders. “The Dutch always fish behind the net.” To end this supposed discrimination, he now proposes to discriminate against asylum seekers. As long as they do not have Dutch nationality, they are not entitled to a rented house, the PVV believes.

Since 2017, status holders no longer have automatic priority when allocating rental properties. Municipalities can decide for themselves which people have priority. Because municipalities simultaneously have the task of housing a fixed number of beneficiaries, many municipalities choose to give priority to this group. Recently, a few municipalities, including Utrecht, have decided to temporarily allocate homes only to status holders, in order to loosen up the stalled asylum chain somewhat.

A naturalization procedure takes at least five years, so asylum seekers who have been told that they can stay in the Netherlands will, if it is up to the PVV, have to wait that long before they are eligible for housing.

Still, Wilders does not think that reception centers for asylum seekers and status holders will become even more full as a result. He expects that it will have a deterrent effect and that people will choose another country to go to.

Wilders comes with his proposal at the start of the campaign for the provincial elections on March 15. Those provinces are not responsible for the allocation of social housing, that is for the municipalities.

Source