Rotterdam is becoming younger, poorer and blacker. That prediction was made twenty years ago in a population forecast. Directors were shocked: “It is beyond our capacity to bear!”, wrote Dominic Schrijer, the then director of the Rotterdam submunicipality of Charlois. He wanted to stop Charlois’ impoverishment. The ensuing debate gave rise to the Rotterdam Act, which allows people with a low income to be excluded from certain neighborhoods. It now appears that this law has negative effects, including on house prices in such a neighborhood.
1 What is the purpose of the Rotterdam Act?
The Special Measures for Metropolitan Problems Act aims to improve the quality of life in vulnerable neighborhoods. When it was introduced in 2005, only low-income residents could be excluded. Since a change in 2016, it has also become possible to ban home seekers with a criminal record, or known for serious nuisance behavior, from certain neighborhoods. In addition, the law could since then be used to keep out potential tenants who were known to have recruited people for extremist organizations in the past.
The law was nicknamed the ‘Rotterdam Act’ because that city was the first to apply the law in 2006. After Rotterdam, the law was also used in Tilburg, Schiedam, Den Bosch, Vlaardingen and Zaanstad. Rotterdam remains a leader, with fourteen neighborhoods where the law is now applied.
2 What are the effects?
Two professors of urban economics at the Vrije Universiteit looked at the effect of the law based on figures from the past twenty years. They came to the conclusion that the law has a stigmatizing effect. The quality of life did not improve and the average income of local residents did not or hardly change. The number of unemployed local residents did decrease, but this is mainly because the unemployed were excluded from the neighborhood by law, the researchers say.
The law does affect house prices. The prices of houses where the law is in force are 3 to 5 percent lower than in comparable neighborhoods where the law does not apply. The professors looked at the development of house prices over two decades.
Hans Koster, one of the researchers, says that the price difference is a result of the stigma attached to the neighborhood. When people want to buy a home, they look into the neighborhood where the home is located. The fact that the Rotterdam law is in force proves to buyers that the neighborhood is among the worst in the city, says researcher Koster. “And that makes a home worth less.” Koster says that a similar effect was seen in the approach to the Vogelaar neighborhoods in 2007. And in the National Program Rotterdam-South.
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3 Didn’t previous research already show that the law doesn’t work?
That’s right. Successive evaluations show that the law has no demonstrable influence on the quality of life or safety in designated neighborhoods. The socio-economic position of residents has also not improved, a 2018 evaluation shows. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam also concluded in 2015 that young men living alone, who often have a migration background, in particular, are refused entry into the neighborhoods.
4 Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing, CDA) wants to expand the law, despite the criticism. Why?
In December, De Jonge wrote to the House of Representatives that the law will also be applicable outside the cities. And in the future, municipalities must also be able to ban home seekers from certain neighborhoods who have threatened or intimidated social workers and other professionals in the past. In addition, it should be possible to use other sources in addition to police data to screen future residents, such as reports of residential nuisance, illegal rental or cannabis cultivation.
Municipalities should be given the opportunity to give priority to certain groups. Think of nurses, teachers and police officers.
According to De Jonge, the “direct targeting of home seekers” would contribute to strengthening vulnerable neighborhoods and neighborhoods. He points out that the law is popular among administrators and residents.
Researcher Hans Koster thinks that the law is popular among administrators because, unlike, for example, the National Program Rotterdam-South or the program for the Vogelaar neighborhoods, it does not require investments. “It is an easy measure to just try. If it doesn’t work, at least it didn’t cost any money.” Koster believes this is unwise following the research. “It does cost people something, just look at what our research shows about house prices.”