R’dam to impose income demand on residents

16 June 2006

AMSTERDAM — Housing Minster Sybilla Dekker has granted the local authority in Rotterdam to set minimum income requirements for would-be residents hoping to settle in certain parts of the port city.

The Minister wrote in a letter to the municipality that she was allowing the measure to enable the city to tackle poverty in some of the neighbourhoods resulting mainly from new immigrants settling there.

The ‘Wet bijzondere maatregelen grootstedelijke problematiek’, better known as the Rotterdam Wet (Law), will be enforced in the districts of Hillesluis, Carnisse, Oud Charlois and Tarwewijk. Several individual streets are also included.

Minister Dekker said it was clear these areas, mainly home to underprivileged people, have to contend with an accumulation of social, economic and physical problems.

The law will require people who have lived in the Rotterdam region for less than six years to earn at least a minimum figure to be stipulated by city officials. There must be sufficient housing elsewhere for people turned away from the named regions.

The permission for the income requirement runs for four years and can be extended for a maximum of another four years on request from the local authority. The local authority in Rotterdam is also taking other steps to alleviate the problems associated with poverty and disadvantage, the Minister noted.

Other cities can also seek permission from the Minister to use the Rotterdam Wet to temporarily limit the influx of underprivileged residents.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2006]

Subject: Dutch news