Almost all status holders who have been given priority over social housing in the city of Utrecht in recent weeks have now found a new home. Alderman Rachel Streefland (Asylum and Integration, ChristenUnie) writes this on Friday a letter to the city council. From next Monday, vacant social housing will be largely available again for other home seekers.
Commissioned by the government, the Utrecht college decided to reserve social housing until mid-September almost exclusively for status holders. In the first three weeks, 279 refugees with a residence permit found new accommodation. Together this concerns 148 homes. In the coming weeks, others on the waiting list will also receive their own home, the municipality of Utrecht expects, so that preferential treatment is no longer necessary.
The reason for the measure was to relieve the burden on reception locations, such as the overcrowded application center in Ter Apel. Due to an increase in the influx of asylum seekers in combination with the tight housing market, status holders cannot move on to own a home. As a result, hundreds of refugees have been sleeping outside the gates of the application center for days. The Council of Ministers will discuss measures to tackle the asylum crisis on Friday.
Also read: Utrecht closes deal with central government on asylum and housing crisis