Thodé Commission: alleviate poverty on BES islands with a social minimum

Porridge and bread – that is the breakfast that the forty children of the Governor de Graaff School on St. Eustatius are served every morning at half past seven, before classes start. The porridge is paid for by the island council, the sandwiches and apple juice are provided by the school itself.

Breakfast at school. This also happens more often in the Netherlands; it happens in one in six primary schools. On St. Eustatius, all 330 students at the four primary schools receive this as standard. “It has been happening here for years,” says Jolly Ferwerda, director of the Governor de Graaff School. “It is difficult for many families on the island to make ends meet. And I estimate that having a good breakfast at home is a real problem for 20 percent of island children. There is also a lot of shame about that. That is why we have breakfast here with all the children, so that no one is left out.”

Ferwerda sometimes recognizes social malaise by how students arrive at school. “Sometimes a child can look a bit dirty, as if it has not been properly cared for. Here all children wear a uniform, precisely to even out the differences. They cost $20 each. Many children have three or four, but there are also those who only have one copy. That is then washed every day.”

There are many economic problems on the three BES islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, which have had the status of special Dutch municipalities since 2010. There is economic growth on Bonaire due to trade and the revival of tourism, but on Saba and Sint Eustatius things have remained difficult since the corona period. Inequality has increased sharply on all three islands. In the Netherlands, the richest 20 percent earn 4.4 as much as the poorest 20 percent. On Saba this is 6.5 times as much, on Bonaire and Sint Eustatius 9.3 and 10.3 times respectively.

Life priceless

Due to the consequences of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, prices have risen sharply on the islands, where almost everything has to be imported. This applies to petrol, gas and electricity, food and internet, but also to rental prices, which are being driven up by the arrival of expats from the Netherlands and the US.

The latter mainly happens on Bonaire, where living expenses for the lower and middle classes are becoming unaffordable. Of the 24,000 inhabitants, 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. In November last year, national ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen already sounded the alarm about this.

“I think the actual poverty rate is even higher,” says Mimi Dongen, who has worked in youth care on Bonaire for a long time and is now a coordinator at a hospice. “During Covid, tourism collapsed and you saw a sharp decline in the middle class. People sold their cars, could no longer pay their mortgages and had to rent.”

And rent prices have been driven up in recent years by Dutch people who come to work or study on Bonaire, she says. “They come here for six months and offer $1,500 for an apartment. Local people simply cannot afford that.”

On Bonaire, 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line

Tourism is picking up again, but Dongen sees many Bonaireans struggling financially. “They try to make some extra money by selling pies or ice cream, or the fruit and vegetables they grow. But you need water for that, and everything is expensive. The prices in the supermarket are higher here than in the Netherlands.”

She sees more and more people leaving. “Especially young Bonaireans who have studied are leaving, because in the Netherlands you have better facilities. The poorer group does not have that opportunity. They have nowhere to go. There you see social problems and domestic violence increasing.”

Shortage of social housing

The costs of living on the BES islands are at the same level as in the Netherlands, but incomes are much lower. On Bonaire and Sint Eustatius the median income per household is approximately 24,000 dollars (22,750 euros), on Saba it is slightly higher.

For many households, this is far too little to pay the fixed costs, says Jacquil Pandt, director of the Statia Housing Foundation. The foundation manages 108 social rental properties on St. Eustatius, the majority of which are owned by the island government. “No new homes have been built here since 2006, while we have 130 families on the urgent waiting list.”

The island government has plans to build fifty new social homes, but they will not be ready before 2026. Many residents are forced to rent expensive private housing, which they often cannot afford. He cites an example of a single mother with three children who paid $800 for a one-bedroom home. “She recently started living in a social housing unit for $300, which is based on her income, with three bedrooms and a garden. But she is an exception: there is no flow. We have tenants who have been in their home for forty years. This year, six homes have become available.”

Due to structural poverty, there have been calls for the establishment of a social minimum since 2010, when the BES islands became special Dutch municipalities. According to Pandt, many families on St. Eustatius earn “around 1,400 dollars per month”, while Nibud and Regioplan have already reported in the past ten years that they need at least double that to make ends meet.

Not only are incomes on the BES islands low, social services also lag far behind those in the Netherlands. There are no unemployment benefits on the islands, and both the state pension and the minimum wage are much lower than in the Netherlands. So there has been structural disadvantage for years.

Thodé thinks that an improvement in the short term is certainly possible, because it concerns a total of 25,000 people. “The population of these three islands is not even the size of an average Dutch provincial town, but for the people on the islands it is a very big problem that must be solved quickly.”

Minister Schouten, who received the report, stated that “a lot of work needs to be done.” At the same time, she stated that, due to the cabinet’s outgoing status, the issue of the BES islands “is a transfer file for subsequent cabinets.”