DWARS appeals to provinces: Repair the housing market!

Together with young people from different political parties, DWARS is today jointly appealing to the forming parties who are negotiating in the provinces. In it, we call for measures to solve problems in the housing market. More houses should be built, landlords should be tackled and vacant buildings should be repurposed. We hope GroenLinks will take these plans into the future coalitions of the provinces in which they are now negotiating.

The call comes from not only DWARS, but also Young Democrats (D66), JFVD (Forum for Democracy), Young Socialists (PvdA), Opposition (DENK) and PerspectieF (Christian Union). In the manifesto, we raise the issue that waiting lists in the housing market are too long. We also mention the large amount of vacancies and the exploitation of tenants by slum landlords. We believe it is high time these problems were solved, which is why we propose concrete measures for this purpose that the provinces can implement. The provinces play an important role in the housing market because they help determine how much and where to build.

We come up with four measures to solve the problems in the housing market. First, we want provinces to build more housing, both for singles and families. We also want buildings that are currently unused to be repurposed as housing. By this, they particularly refer to vacant old office buildings. Furthermore, we think that house slum landlords should be tackled, as many people now pay more rent than is legally allowed. Finally, the young people point out that rents vary greatly from region to region and that the rules around social renting should be adjusted accordingly.

The entire call can be here read.