Rethinking creates housing opportunities

Housing Rest for a Next Step
By 2022, the Amsterdam region is estimated to have six thousand economically homeless people. They do not qualify for social care, because severe psychological problems and addiction are not an issue. Economically homeless people mainly have a housing problem. The best solution is (temporary) housing. This requires agility, given the huge shortage of affordable housing.

De Regenboog Groep has specialized in creative housing solutions since Onder de Pannen (2015) and is expanding the number of housing solutions under the name Temporary Living. Tijdelijk Onder Dak lets people live in homes that are going to be demolished or renovated. Bijzonder Bewoond provides shelter in special locations. That can be anything. An old school building, an office building or a vacant hotel. A Parentshouse provides temporary housing for parents who are going through a complex divorce. The home is near the children. Parents are thus given space to create a "parenting plan" and search for housing for the parent who is leaving. The essence of all our housing projects is to provide a year of residential respite. During that year, people can orient themselves to the next step in peace.

Omthinking creates housing opportunities
You can't open a newspaper without hearing about the housing crisis. Worrying, thinks Regenboog director Hans Wijnands, because it puts pressure on society. Soon only young people of wealthy parents will be able to get housing. "We will have to look at housing differently," said Wijnands, who believes much more is possible. "In the Netherlands, if you divide the number of square meters by the number of people, there is enough living space." He illustrates this with an example. "The average use of an office is somewhere between twenty-eight and thirty hours per week. So such a building is vacant for an average of 134 hours per week."

De Regenboog Groep is already setting a good example by letting people sleep in their own offices. Self-managed night care. That can be done in many more places in the city, we think. You can also look at parts of offices that aren't actually used at all, even during the day. And what about vacant properties? Vacant properties "run off you," every property owner knows that. Then it's better to rent it out to economically homeless people. Wijnands: "For the past two years we have been busy lobbying parties that were previously not so concerned with the housing crisis, such as real estate companies. Together with them we want to see how we can transform properties into temporary housing solutions. It will not happen quickly, but that is where the opportunities lie. Several companies are already on board. Either way, you have to think outside the box if you want to do something about the housing crisis. And let's have been good at that for fifty years."