A devilish dilemma

Lately one thing keeps standing out: the requests reaching us are getting heavier, more complex, more distressing. And more and more often they come from mothers, fathers and families with children. Not addicted, not derailed, simply people with nowhere left to go. People doing everything to keep their children safe, who fall through the gaps between all the systems and rules.

Some sleep on the sofa at friends or family. Others live out of suitcases in the car or are forced to “camp” in a storage box. And more and more families genuinely end up on the street. I hear the same sentence more and more often: “I do not dare to ask for help… they might think I am a bad parent.” And even when these families do dare to ask, doors often stay shut. Too “self-reliant” according to the system, and meanwhile they are without a home and children end up on the street.

We want to help. Every single time. But the reality is that we do not have enough places in hotels, and certainly not for families. Because the move on to permanent housing is slow, we have to ask, far more often than we would like, that one heartbreaking question:

Who do we help? And who not?

It is a devilish dilemma. A choice we do not want to make at all, but have to.

And meanwhile there is space enough standing empty

The bitter part is that the real problem is not too little housing, but too many closed doors. There is plenty standing empty in the Netherlands. Homes above shops. Private homes. Renovation projects. Office buildings. Even entire residential complexes waiting months for a new purpose or a refit.

So it is not that there is no space. According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS) more than 200,000 homes stand empty, tens of thousands of them structurally. Offices sit unused at 8 to 10% vacancy, millions of square metres that could readily be converted. And renovation projects create more than 10,000 temporarily empty homes a year, exactly the places where families could land safely and, with the right support, move on to permanent housing.

Enough vacancy in the Netherlands

So many houses, offices and shops stand empty in the Netherlands that every resident of the city of Utrecht could live in them. That follows from a calculation by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the journalism platform Pointer (KRO-NCRV). In total, 17.8 million square metres of buildings stand structurally empty, the same floor area as 200,000 standard new-build apartments.

CBS, via welingelichtekringen.nl

But owners are growing more cautious: afraid of tenancy protection, liability or long-term obligations. Municipalities want certainty and protocols. And so doors stay closed, even when children have to sleep outside. Systems stand in the way of solutions.

Room for Change

Outside peak periods, hotels often have 10 to 40% spare capacity. In Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Den Bosch, Arnhem and Utrecht we work with around 28 socially engaged hotels to offer economically homeless individuals and families a safe place quickly. Over the past 5 years we have been able to help more than 230 people. The problem, however, seems to keep growing and the need for help more urgent.

What is really needed

• More continuous hotel capacity to offer temporary shelter fast, especially for families
• Faster movement on to permanent homes
• More nerve and cooperation, less fear of the rules
• Policy that helps people, not policy that slows them down

Until then we keep making impossible choices every day. Not because we want to. But because there is no other way. And still we keep believing in what is possible: a safe place, calm in your head and room for a new start. One hotel night at a time...

How you can help

Look out for one another. Ask whether you can help. Give something if you can spare it.

But more is needed. Much more. We are looking to work with people and organisations willing to look beyond rules and risks: policymakers, property managers, housing associations, hotel management, anyone with nerve and their heart in the right place. Together we can open the doors that stay closed today. Together we can offer families a safe place after all.