Early Tuesday morning, May 14, the “Give Them a Chance” rally kicked off on Elandsgracht. The event was organized to send a message to property owners to take responsibility in a city where more and more people are falling through the cracks.
24 economically homeless people per week
It was already announced last week: a demonstration is coming! It will take place this morning at 7:00 a.m. in front of the Claverhuis on Elandsgracht. Twenty-four cardboard tents will be set up. These symbolize the twenty-four economically homeless people who are added to that number every week in Amsterdam.
Marit Postma, spokesperson for De Regenboog Groep, explains:
Opposition to buying up housing as an investment is growing at least as fast as the shortage of affordable housing. Prince Bernard Jr. seems, alongside Reinout Oerlemans, to be becoming one of the faces of this movement. In addition to the anonymous campaign below, Quote is also taking a stand: "slumlording is vulgar, crude, and too focused on profit".
But instead of “talking about,” we’d rather “engage in dialogue with” these people and organizations.
That’s why De Regenboog Groep sent a letter with an invitation to the thirty largest property owners in the city. Want to read it? Click >
Michael Sprokkereef, program coordinator for social services at De Regenboog Groep, explains it a bit more briefly:
Economic homelessness in practice:
During the event, it’s also made very clear in practical terms what you’ll have to deal with once you become economically homeless:
What you see happening here (simply not being able to submit a request to a municipality) is something that was also has been extensively investigated.
Here is a selection of the rejection letters from some of “our” stranded economically homeless people, displayed on the tents.
Must read: Parool published this story this morning
AT5 is also on the scene at Elandsgracht. They’ve produced this wonderful piece about Mabel. Click on the image to watch the video.
And Brandpuntplus also featured a great article and this fantastic illustration by Ylja Band
Photography and film: Ida Bartelds