Open letter to the group chairman of GroenLinks Nijmegen

Dear April,

First of all, congratulations on your victory in the municipal elections. In the coming period, you will set the course for the next four years in the formation. We from DWARS Arnhem-Nijmegen and Student Union AKKU together draw your attention to three issues that will be important to students in the coming years. These three issues are: sustainability, housing and internship opportunities.

Sustainability            
First, we would like to draw your attention to sustainability. This is an issue that resonates among students. Many students took the subject into account when choosing their vote. Not surprisingly, as it concerns their own future. We would like to raise three sustainable points.

Food waste
In the Netherlands, we now waste an average of 41 kilos of solid food. In fact, food waste accounts for 6% of total greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in Europe. The government wants to halve food waste by householders, businesses and in the hospitality industry in the Netherlands by 2030. The municipality of Nijmegen must also go along with this. We would like to ask you to engage with businesses and residents to raise consumer awareness of food waste.

Eco-friendly mobility
In the “Quickscan Sustainability of Dutch Municipalities”, Nijmegen is ranked 24th with a score of 42%.^e spot. The main challenges that emerge relate to mobility. We have only 99 charging stations per 100,000 inhabitants in Nijmegen and particulate matter emissions are also still a big problem. We would like to suggest investing in electric charging stations. In addition, we advocate the introduction of an environmental zone.

Municipal property
Thirdly, in order to be fully climate neutral and climate resilient by 2045, it is important to make the

make municipal property future-proof and adapt the buildings over time. We believe it is important for the municipality to make a strong commitment to using renewable materials and sustainable energy sources, such as solar energy and thermal storage.

Living
The second topic of interest to students is the housing market. There are two parts to this topic, namely the growing housing shortage and the issues surrounding squatting and landlords.

Room shortage
First, we hope you formulate concrete ambitions to have affordable independent housing units and one-bedroom flats added by housing cooperative SSH&.

The lack of supply prevents many students from living where they want. The National Student Housing Monitor 2017 by knowledge centre KENCES therefore describes the housing market for students in Nijmegen as ‘tight’. According to the APOLLO forecast, the demand for rooms decreases very slightly in the coming years. However, this forecast does not adequately take into account the growing international influx from Radboud University. So also concludes SSH& on the basis of talks with the International Office of Radboud University and within the Administrative Consultation on Student Housing, which includes the municipality. So the housing shortage will not disappear on its own in the coming years.

In addition, the Living as a Student 2017 survey shows that a very large proportion of students, who are currently in rooms, have a desire to move to an independent living unit or a one-bedroom house. Thus, a large number of students are now against their wishes and at the mercy of the market for boarded-up premises. This leads to a lot of annoyance in the neighbourhood and a position of power for landlords. We will return to the consequences of this later.

The supply of one-bedroom houses and independent living units for students in Nijmegen is seriously inadequate. We note that this problem is recognised by many parties, including yours. Yet most election manifestos lack concrete ambitions. We therefore hope that in the coalition negotiations, you do formulate a concrete ambition to realise, together with SSH&, a considerable number of housing units for students.

Cramming
As mentioned, slumming causes annoyance to other residents and leaves students at the mercy of rogue landlords. Besides creating additional housing at SSH&, the municipality can tackle illegal renting, fining landlords, and investing in tenants' resilience.

It is estimated that there are now 2,000 illegal student houses in Nijmegen. Here, landlords have free rein. Fire safety and health requirements are often not met and students are regularly harassed by their landlords. By removing the illegal status of buildings, nuisance can be better controlled and landlords can be tackled. We would therefore ask you to draw up a plan of action to combat illegal rentals.

The only sensible way to tackle landlords is to hit them where their heart is: the wallet. Far more important than rewarding good landlords, is fining rogue landlords for violating health and safety regulations and for structurally charging excessive rents. We also call on you, when tenants' safety is still at stake after multiple fines, to confiscate properties and refurbish them yourself.

The municipality can also invest in tenants' resilience in two ways. First, many students are unaware of their rights. By investing in education,

tenants themselves raise the alarm. Second, the municipality can invest in supporting tenants in conflicts with landlords. Organisations like Stichting Huurteams Nijmegen already do good work in this area. We advocate extending this subsidy so that Stichting Huurteams can take up more cases.

Internship opportunities
The last topic of interest to students is the availability of internships in the municipality. Internships are incredibly important for students. They are a the bridge between education and career. In many, therefore, internships are compulsory, especially in mbo and hbo. The consequence, however, is that students who cannot find a place immediately suffer study delays. This problem mainly affects first-year students, as many companies are often mainly looking for third- and fourth-year students.

We ask you to map more precisely the supply and demand of internships in Nijmegen by sector and level. That way, the municipality can identify bottlenecks and remedy them together with the business community. Moreover, we would like to ask you to make internship placements available yourself. This can be done at the municipality itself, but also by including the number of traineeships in tenders.

Closing
In conclusion, we hope that you will pay attention to the aforementioned concerns around sustainability, housing and internship opportunities during the coalition talks.

Kind regards,

On behalf of DWARS Arnhem-Nijmegen,

Bram Berntsen, chairman

On behalf of Student Union AKKU,

Carmen Quint, chairman