Only the municipalities of Meppel and Noordenveld appear to have achieved the target for housing status holders for this year. Both municipalities accommodate more status holders than prescribed. The other ten Drenthe municipalities have not yet achieved the target. This is evident from figures up to December 1 from the Central Agency for Asylum Seekers (COA).
Some municipalities can still achieve the target in the last month of the year, but at least seven municipalities appear to be too far behind the objectives.
The central government imposes a number of status holders on municipalities that must be accommodated. The distribution across municipalities depends on how many people live in a municipality. The COA then links the status holders to the municipalities.
The municipality itself determines how a status holder is received. It can be an independent (rental) home, but also a shared home with several people. The municipality also decides whether people with a residence permit are entitled to priority access to social housing.
Every six months the central government determines how many status holders need to be accommodated. Until January 1, 2024, Drenthe should receive approximately 600 status holders in the second half of the year, but this will be slightly less than 400 until December 1. The municipalities of Emmen (44), Tynaarlo (40) and Hoogeveen (35) in particular remain numbers behind their target.
Asylum seekers become status holders as soon as they receive a residence permit. Until then, asylum seekers stay in an asylum seeker center (azc). But due to the overcrowded asylum seekers’ centers, the registration center for asylum seekers in Ter Apel is currently overflowing with people waiting to be placed in an asylum seeker’s centre.
King’s Commissioner Jetta Klijnsma therefore urges status holders for whom a home will soon become available to be offered temporary housing in the municipality in which they will live. According to Kleinsma, the pressure on the asylum seekers’ centers and Ter Apel can be reduced in this way.