The Pen | Housing is more than housing

I paraphrase: 'Municipalities, housing associations and market players have proved insufficiently capable of solving the rising housing shortage and countering speculation with housing' (VVD). 'Public housing becomes a government task again' (CDA). 'We create a national building plan for sustainable and affordable housing' (SP). 'The control of housing construction should return to the state' (PVV) and "that's why there will be a Minister of Housing" (PvdA).

Even in quantitative terms, there is hardly any real political struggle. For example, the Labour Party wants a Minister of Housing to "build 100,000 new affordable homes a year. An equal number is what the Christian Union wants. D66 and GroenLinks want "to build more than one million houses before 2030. The CDA wants to "build one million new and sustainable homes within ten years. The VVD and SP do not venture into numbers, but where the SP wants a national building plan for "sustainable and affordable housing for everyone," the VVD suffices with "affordable housing must be accessible to everyone.

I predict the text for the coalition agreement: 'The cabinet will make efforts to increase the housing construction program to about 100,000 homes per year within this cabinet period.' The next sentence will be a collection of special wishes from the individual coalition partners: 'The priority will be affordable owner-occupied and rental housing for middle-income earners. Affordable housing must be accessible to everyone, which is why we aim for a minimum of 30% of social rental housing, which will allow lower-income, young people, seniors, first-time buyers and people with disabilities better access to the housing market. In addition, "requirements and rules for sustainability will be tightened," although with PVV participation this will be a less elaborate passage. Nor is housing finance the biggest stumbling block. Thus, the landlord levy will be converted into a "refund" to those payers, who demonstrably deliver public housing performance. In material terms, this will thus become a National Solidarity Fund for Housing of a self-regulating housing sector.

But housing is more than measures alone. Ministers do not build housing. At best, they can determine who will, or rather, may, do so. And with all good intentions notwithstanding, most politicians have deeply internalized that they must provide housing for us Dutch. In that top-down approach, the roles have been fixed since World War II. In our country, implementation is almost exclusively in the hands of housing corporations and project developers. Incidentally, they take this for granted as much as politicians do. That's a shame, because housing is not just about housing citizens in which tenants are customers and buyers are consumers. I once spoke about this in the corridors of the House of Representatives with the former Housing Secretary Enneüs Heerma, whom I hold in high esteem. In a few resounding sentences he put the following picture: 'In our society, people have to choose a school early in life that will determine their entire professional life. They freely choose a partner and choose to have children and raise them as they see fit. But how to live is decided by someone else'. In other words, in our country people are not free to give their own content to living. 

Living is more than a roof over your head. In living, numerous dreams can come together. Therefore, the conversation should be primarily about what people would want in their own housing themselves. "From housing to living"[i] literally implies that elected officials give their constituents the opportunity to shape their own living and living together. And yes, it occurs in a single paragraph but never materialized in performance commitments. Therefore, dear politicians, there is still a lot to be gained. Give us all the opportunity to be existential ourselves, even in living. Not as an obligation, but as a real choice. I do not believe in the tough numbers presented to us. Rarely do these promises become reality. But if only a substantial percentage of housing production comes into the hands of citizens, we will already have a more interesting Netherlands. Diversity, as the examples show, is in the people themselves. And therefore also in what they create. It would be nice if in the coming cabinet period we get politicians who also dare to entrust our housing to citizens. I would say, give it a try, you will see; our living will become richer as a result.  

Source credit:[i] Ivan Illich