The government and municipalities must do more to prevent homelessness after evictions. The National Ombudsman and the National Ombudsman for Children write this in a joint report on Tuesday.
Too often residents, sometimes with children, become homeless because the municipality does not help them find a new home, the report says. This is in violation of human rights, which are laid down in international treaties.
The Ombudsman and Children’s Ombudsman ask Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing, CDA) and municipalities to quickly improve the rules and procedures regarding evictions.
Because there are few houses available, they say that it regularly happens that the municipality puts people under “undue pressure” to accept a temporary solution. Such as a place in social shelter, a holiday home or with friends or family.
Read also: The number of homeless people is rising sharply: ‘It is scandalous that if you sleep outside somewhere the police wake you up’
In itself, eviction is not a violation of human rights. In the Netherlands you can be evicted if you have serious payment arrears, cause a nuisance or if a lot of drugs are found on you. The landlord or mortgage lender must request permission from the court. Municipalities are allowed to ‘close’ the house themselves after a major drug discovery.
But eviction may not lead to homelessness, according to the UN treaty ‘on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’. This does happen in practice, conclude the National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen and Children’s Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer, who received complaints about this from evicted families and involved professionals.
Workarounds
It is unclear exactly how many evictions take place in the Netherlands. Only the social rental sector keeps track of this. In 2021, trade association Aedes will have approximately 1,400 evictions. A number that is falling sharply: in 2015 there were more than 5,500. It is not known how often children are involved.
As soon as an eviction threatens, the municipality is often involved in the matter. This can help you find a new home. But there are no national obligations for this, conclude Van Zutphen and Kalverboer, and municipalities deal with it differently.
Also read this interview with Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen: ‘I see people who don’t have enough to live on’
“Families often end up in temporary housing solutions for a long time,” says Van Zutphen. Because they do not have their own home, he says, they are “basically homeless.” That leads to stress: “Their life becomes survival and they cannot work on their future.”
Their children are also victims of this. In such an unstable situation, parents are less able to give them “the loving guidance” they need, the report says. To avoid ending up on the street, according to Van Zutphen, single mothers sometimes call on ‘wrong friends’. As a result, they become “trapped in (violent) dependency relationships.”
Punishment is paramount
The interests of the residents are lost most quickly when the eviction follows a major drug discovery. The mayor is then allowed to ‘close’ the house, and that decision is mainly taken ‘from the idea that bad behavior must be punished’, the Ombudsman and the Ombudsman for Children write. Little thought is given to the consequences of the expulsion.
While deportation can “exacerbate the problem”, and clashes with human rights. These always apply, write Van Zutphen and Kalverboer, “regardless of people’s behavior”.
They ask municipalities to respect human and children’s rights during evictions. And Minister De Jonge should enshrine those rights in law.
In addition, the Ombudsman and Children’s Ombudsman want residents who are at risk of eviction to always receive legal assistance, and that municipalities and housing corporations inform them properly and comprehensibly about the state of affairs.
#Ombudsmen #Van #Zutphen #Kalverboer #Municipalities #violate #human #rights #evictions