On the soapbox: Malika Amghar, a social legal services provider at the Straatalliantie, an advocacy organization for homeless people in Amsterdam. "If I were mayor of Amsterdam tomorrow, the first thing I would do is tackle the problem of vacant housing."
“I work every day with people who don’t have a place to live. Not because they don’t want one, not because they aren’t trying their best, but because there simply isn’t a place for them. At least, that’s what they say. Because if you look closely, you see space everywhere. You see empty offices, empty floors above stores, buildings that have been waiting for years to be repurposed. And you see the Maritim Hotel in Amsterdam-Noord: nearly six hundred rooms, ready for use, and empty for years.
That’s why we were demonstrating at that hotel on April 1. It was no coincidence that it was the day the winter shelter closes. People are then sent back out onto the streets. That’s the reality. Meanwhile, hundreds of rooms stand empty. So don’t try to tell me this is just a housing crisis. This is also a matter of choice.
What frustrates me the most are the waiting lists. We now have waiting lists for waiting lists. People wait for a case worker and then wait for a home. It almost sounds like a joke. Only nobody is laughing. Meanwhile, people are becoming increasingly exhausted. Anyone who goes without a permanent address for a long time slowly becomes “marginalized.” You can participate less, get things done less, and make less progress. The stress piles up. What starts as a housing problem becomes a care problem.
And yet we keep talking—mostly about procedures, permits, and why things can’t be done. But you can’t live on empty talk, as Jan Schaefer* once said. You can live in vacant properties, though. During the pandemic, hotels could suddenly be repurposed for people without a home. It turned out that all sorts of objections were suddenly not insurmountable. If I were mayor of Amsterdam tomorrow, the first thing I’d do is tackle the vacancy problem. Not with yet another study or yet another task force, but with action. Make it clear what’s vacant. Take action when buildings remain unused for years. Use buildings temporarily for housing. Make sure that leaving a building vacant becomes more expensive than using it. Open that door.”
* Jan Schaefer served as a member of the House of Representatives for the PvdA from 1971 to 1973 and as State Secretary for Urban Renewal from 1973 to 1977