Anti-social tenants face life in ‘container homes’

25 April 2005

AMSTERDAM — Government and opposition MPs are teaming up in a joint plan to house anti-social tenants in special iron huts to reduce city disputes and prevent people from being forced onto the street.
 
The plan from the Christian Democrat CDA, Liberal VVD and opposition Labour PvdA is focused at troublesome tenants who have long been a nuisance factor.

Instead of being evicted, they will be given a ‘last chance residence’, newspaper ‘De Telegraaf’ reported on Monday.

Christian Democrat MP Mirjam Sterk wants to prevent tenants who disturb their neighbourhood ending up on the street.

She said: “The trouble will only have been relocated, not resolved”.

The CDA is being inundated with complaints about troublesome neighbours and Sterk believes that between “the normal house” and “the street”, a transitional home is missing.

The party will submit a legislative proposal to Parliament allowing the relocation of anti-social neighbours to container homes in a specifically designated and remote area of a city.

It is considered likely the extra trong homes will be specially built — probably out of metal or shipping containers — to withstand vandalism.

This will be the first time that such a plan will be discussed on a nation-wide basis.

The central city of Kampen has already placed anti-social tenants in special housing. The initiative is said to have succeeded in reducing city problems.

Similar proposals were raised in Amsterdam last year and more recently in The Hague, where the VVD said earlier this month that assistance should also be given to housing corporations and social welfare groups to ensure that residents are only temporarily housed in the special suburbs.

Calls to crackdown on anti-social behaviour gathered strength last year after the  Amsterdam family Tokkie focused the nation’s attention on the problem of troublesome neighbours.

That family — which was evicted from its rented home after a violent dispute with neighbours — came to symbolise anti-social behaviour for many people in the Netherlands at a time when Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was pushing for a return to traditional Dutch norms and values.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Dutch news