The municipality of Den Helder is withdrawing from a letter that the North Holland North Safety Region sent last week in its name, among other things. In that letter, the Security Region indicated that it would rather receive 500 status holders (people with a residence permit, ed.) in this region more quickly than 150 refugees.
According to mayor De Boer, the letter was sent without the councils of mayor and aldermen having been asked for advice ‘and had the time to obtain official advice’. According to him, De Boer had indicated that he ‘did not agree with this letter, but the letter was subsequently sent with the signature of Den Helder’.
Moreover, the municipality says it cannot fulfill the promise in the letter. She encounters various ‘obstacles and issues’. “First of all, customization must be provided for the beneficiaries themselves and all kinds of facilities must be organised. This includes care, education and, of course, housing, which also requires extra deployment of the official capacity to properly safeguard these issues.”
There were 28 status holders registered for Den Helder who had to get a spot faster. But according to her, that is impossible. “Status holders end up in the regular housing supply and not in special reception locations. This means that sometimes they have to wait for housing to flow through, among other things, the housing associations. If reception has to be accelerated, other solutions must also be found.”
Den Helder is therefore withdrawing from this, but says that in the coming six months it will focus on the assignment to give 44 status holders a place in the municipality during that time.
‘by mistake’
It is unclear how it was possible that the signature of the mayor of Den Helder was placed on the letter without his permission. “We can only indicate that the letter was distributed by the Security Region without the mayor’s approval,” said a municipal spokesperson. “We also take into account that this happened by mistake.”
Mayor Marjan van Kampen van Schagen, who speaks on behalf of the Security Region when it comes to the reception of asylum seekers, does not yet answer this either. She only reacts via her spokespersons: “Obviously the mayor of Den Helder is right when it comes to the speed with which all this must be achieved. Nevertheless, we are doing our utmost to make this happen.”
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In addition to Den Helder, other coastal municipalities have also been approached to place a reception vessel for refugees. Den Helder confirms that this question was also asked in an exploratory conversation. “But Den Helder has been committed to the good reception of asylum seekers for years,” she replies. “In that context, the question has not been specifically addressed.”
Effects
Additional questions about how it was possible that the signature came under it and what consequences this decision by Den Helder has on the plan of the Security Region have not yet been answered. Den Helder himself says that he does not know what the consequences will be: “We cannot say that. The letter was sent from the North Holland North Safety Region and it is up to the State Secretary and the Ministry to respond to it.”
Other municipalities in the Kop van Noord-Holland seem to support the plan, although only Texel says it has a concrete location where the status holders could go. The seventeen status holders could go there in the Woontij chalets behind health center De Zandkoog in Den Burg. “These are chalets that have actually been written off”, says a spokesperson, “but are still in excellent condition. By accelerating housing for this group, we hope that the pressure at Ter Apel will decrease.”
‘Big challenge’
Schagen works together with Wooncompagnie to give the nine people with a residence permit a place. Hollands Kroon indicates that it has ‘not yet a concrete place’ to temporarily house the twelve status holders. “Friday evening it was announced that the people are coming to the municipalities in Noord-Holland Noord at an accelerated pace,” said a spokesperson. “We are now looking for places to temporarily house these people.”
The municipality of Hollands Kroon acknowledges that, in these times of housing shortage, this is ‘a major challenge’. “We are using all possible options to find a temporary place so that these people can then find housing through the regular process.”
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