Wynia's Week: How to make housing problems worse by making them better

The lack of housing has become one of the biggest social issues during Mark Rutte’s period as prime minister. Residual In practice housing has become a residual item on the agenda, limping in after the budget deficit, open borders, the influx of ‘knowledge workers’, asylum seekers, nature, climate and the interests of provinces and local councils. Cannabis The first category of big losers are people with a right to social housing but are not considered ‘urgent’, as are asylum seekers. More than half of Amsterdam’s rental market consist of social housing of which at least 20% is rented by people who earn too much, rented out illegally, rented out to tourists or used for growing cannabis. And their ‘social’ tenants are being subsidised compared to their less fortunate neighbours because they are paying less rent and are often eligible for a housing allowance to boot.