Never before have so many people on waiting list for social housing: Antwerp residents and singles are looking
by atrocious_cleva82
Never before have so many people on waiting list for social housing: Antwerp residents and singles are looking
by atrocious_cleva82
8 comments
Housing is essential infrastructure. Perhaps we should move away from American capitalism on this issue?
“veel woningen zijn niet geschikt voor singles”
So the obvious solution is to allocate a % of these larger homes, and make them available to single renters who are willing to share. One home could accommodate 2, 3 or more (depending on the size of the house) single renters. This would go a long way to reducing this backlog.
>Building and renovating
>Europe recently tapped Flanders on the fingers for its poor housing policy. The EU does not enforce measures, but wants to encourage Flanders to take action.
>Depraetere wants to take that action: she wants to build and renovate affordable housing in the coming years to solve the shortage. “There have been too few social housing built in recent years. We will invest 6 billion euros to turn the tide, because that is really necessary.”
>She has therefore commissioned housing organizations to focus on this. “In the past, they had to deal with other issues as fusion operations, but their focus must now really shift to building and tackle vacancy.”
>All cities and municipalities must assume their responsibility, according to Depraetere. As previously announced, a new binding social objective will be set for this from 2026. This obliges the addition of social housing, so that everyone makes an effort to shorten the long waiting lists.
>”In recent years, the policy has been too lax for municipalities that did not do their part and thus abandon their inhabitants. It has to be different. Municipalities that do not do their part will have to contribute to the rent premium for those who are waiting for a social housing,” Depraetere explains. “This way, people who wait get direct support, that seems logical to me.”
Belgium has a really weak policy regarding social housing, comparing to countries like The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, UK or France. Housing should not be a business, but a basic need guaranteed by any decent government.
https://preview.redd.it/qikd6v75yyte1.png?width=364&format=png&auto=webp&s=3578b6da986d144af6d1c3b150dca6d4ba43c223
Waiting list for social housing: “I rely on the government to provide for me, and complain when they do not give me a house.”
We should only rent social housing. Every starter on the job market comes into account for a social house. And for the ones that rent, we should give them some time to find another rental unit once they earn enough money. We all heard about the Antwerpse schepen, or other famous people with a more than decent pay, but still live in a social house, for a cheap rent. The same with the ones that buy one, and then once they make more money they sell it for the market price(they need to live in it for x years before they can do that)and make a lot of profits.
Also a lot of immigrants are illegible for social housing, especially the ones with kids., we had unfortunately an open gate politics the last years, where people smugglers would sell Belgium as the place to be for the benefits.
There’s a reason people are not fans of social housing. I own an appartment in a building where about one third are social renters, they behave like barbarians, and treat the property as a container park.
This was this morning in front of our door (not a collection day!)
That kind of behaviour is all too common amongst social renters, leading to resistance by existing owners in an area when they want to build more social housing, or rent from private owners under social tariff.
See this recent article too: https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/wanneer-horrorhuurders-je-huis-ruineren-ik-heb-hun-ocmw-begeleidster-een-keer-gezien-ze-stond-perplex~b40042ff/
My parents once rented out the house they inherited via OCMW. It’s amazing how much can be destroyed in such a short period of time.
No matter what the waiting lists are like, foreign gypsies are always a priority. If they squat in Brussels, they are being offered 2-3 various social housing units which they can turn off (!).
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