The summer recreation season is long gone, the tourists have gone home, but it remains busy at the dozens of holiday parks on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug. Many people continue to live in their homes, much to the chagrin of the municipality, which is taking firm action against this.
For years, permanent residence in holiday parks has been tolerated, until the cabinet put an end to this in 2019. The parks had to return to their recreational origins, because permanent habitation would harm nature and people could remain out of sight of the authorities. This means that residents had to leave after a few months.
Due to the corona pandemic and the housing shortage, little of this has happened in the years that followed. Now the cabinet leaves it to local politicians to determine which parks they will act against.
The municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug is clear: the wooded area must be attractive for recreationists and tourists and the parks are therefore no longer intended for living. According to the municipality, permanent residence causes “nature degradation”, the parks do not meet fire safety requirements (different requirements apply to homes than to recreational parks) and criminals can easily hide there due to a lack of supervision. That is why the municipality introduced barrier registration at twenty parks last year to track who is arriving and who is leaving in order to check for permanent residence.
One of the parks is De Ossenberg in Overberg. Large piles of unopened envelopes lie in the park’s wooden mailboxes, also from authorities such as the judiciary and collection agencies. Letters that, according to a resident – who does not want her name in the newspaper, name is known to the editors – sometimes remain untouched for months. She describes the park as a ‘divorce village’ – many people settle here after their marriage has ended, because they have to join the back of the queue for a social rental home or do not have the financial means to buy a home, but can buy or rent a holiday home . They share the park with the elderly, who enjoy the peace and nature, and migrant workers.
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Ad Graafland ensures that he is in the Netherlands for at least four months every year to secure his state pension.
But the parks also contain the aforementioned types who are difficult for the government to grasp: in September, Mayor Frits Naafs of the Utrechtse Heuvelrug warned of criminal activities. According to the mayor, the police arrest several suspects at the parks every year, but the majority manages to hide among the recreationists and residents. Police figures previously showed that a quarter more criminal suspects live in the parks than the national average. In the province of Utrecht there were even 80 percent more suspects.
De Ossenberg is in the hands of holiday real estate magnate Janus Bergervoet, who has built up an empire in recent years by renovating dilapidated campsites into modern holiday accommodations. His company TopParken is under fire for possible zoning violations, tax evasion and illegal employment, wrote NRC earlier. Rabobank stopped financing and the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) is investigating money laundering via the parks.
Read also: Getting rich by patching up campsites – and always pushing the boundaries of the law
Bypass checks
According to a spokesperson for Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing, CDA), many residents of holiday parks are not registered in the municipality where they live in order to avoid checks. Several residents confirm this against NRC and state that they are registered on paper at the address of friends or family, where they receive their mail. As thanks for the administrative trick, they pay them a low ‘rent’. Some have been working this way for years, but have never been checked. And if they do, they will pay the fine without any problems.
Municipalities and the national government want to gain more insight into what is happening in the parks. Including through the barrier control. In addition, residents can expect a letter with the request to find replacement accommodation within a year and a half. Many holiday park residents feel cornered and fear ending up on the street.
In the Netherlands, according to an estimate from 2019, about 55,000 people stay continuously at holiday parks. The Ministry of the Interior does not have a more up-to-date number, although there are indications that the number has increased: the recreation market is popular due to a housing shortage and the corona pandemic, possibly because people were looking for more peace and space. According to the Land Registry, a total of 14,000 holiday homes were purchased in 2020 and 2021, much more than in previous years – and about 10 percent of the total stock of holiday homes. On average, a holiday home cost 182,000 euros last year, more than two hundred thousand euros less than a regular home. As a result, the houses are an accessible alternative for people who are not available on the regular housing market.
The Netherlands has about 140,000 holiday homes, spread over 5,100 locations. Municipalities tolerate permanent residence in a small part of these, according to the Ministry of the Interior. In many other places people have to leave, such as in the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, Overijssel and Drenthe. In the Heuvelrug, fines vary from 2,000 euros per week to 20,000 euros for residents.
Maintain in the middle of the night
Meanwhile, the cabinet continues to struggle with the holiday park policy. In 2018, then-minister Kajsa Ollongren (Internal Affairs, D66) made a reservation 2 million euros for municipalities to stop permanent residence on the parks. In recent years, municipalities have randomly and unannounced enforcement of illegal habitation, sometimes in the middle of the night.
But under pressure from the House of Representatives, the cabinet relaxed the conditions for living in a park in the summer of 2020 in order to cope with the housing shortage.
According to Martin Smith (62), the current policy – municipalities that independently decide whether permanent residence is possible – leads to arbitrariness. He has been living at Park Primo in Coevorden in Drenthe for thirteen years and is the chairman of the board of the Association for Owners of the park. “The municipality of Westerveld ‘legalises’ a park a few kilometers from here, while our own municipal council has already sent the first residents a letter that they have to leave,” he said last autumn. If the residents did not leave before December 3, he said, a penalty of 15,000 euros was threatened. “I get crying people on the line who have lived here for twenty years and now have nowhere to go.” To date, no penalty order has been issued. The residents have been given some time by the municipality.
According to Smith, the average age in the Coevorden park is over sixty. “There are also people over eighty living here, who live on their state pension. Where should they go? Buying a house is impossible. With this policy, the municipality is pushing the elderly into the social and economic abyss.”
Permanent occupation of holiday parks affects nature
Municipalities in other places in the country also believe that the parks should return to their intended purpose. Many older residents are afraid of ending up between two stools: for years, living in a holiday home has been tolerated, but when the housing market is overheated and many municipalities also have no place to house refugees, they have to leave and provide for more competition for social housing.
According to a spokesperson for the municipality of Coevoerden, residents will be given time to find new accommodation, otherwise a fine will be imposed. The municipality wants to offer help to residents through social work. “It is not our intention to put people on the street. But we do want to see them actively working to find other accommodation, ”explains the spokesperson.
The municipality of Utrechtse Heuvelrug states that residents with financial, medical or social problems can turn to them for help and alternative accommodation. So-called Social Village Teams have been set up for this purpose. “Just like the municipality, they cannot offer housing, but they can provide support and guidance,” said Mayor Naafs, who emphasizes that the owners of the parks also have a responsibility “in tackling the problem”.