Dutch Housing Minister: Native Youth Can “Fortunately” Stay with Parents While Status Holders Get Homes
In a recent interview, Dutch Housing Minister Elanor Boekholt-O’Sullivan faced pushback over prioritizing status holders for scarce public housing while young Dutch starters struggle for years to leave home.
An interviewer pressed her directly: “With all due respect, Minister, because I can of course turn it around exactly. You could also say that the young starter has to live with his parents, the house might be too small, he might end up on the street eventually because he can’t find a home. So then the status holder, who might otherwise end up living on a cruise ship as you sketch, gets a home, but the starter does not.”
The minister replied that many young people can manage: “We see that a lot of starters fortunately, not ideal, but fortunately can still live with their parents or stay living with them. That is not the case in all situations. I am every week in the country and I see enormously distressing situations, so it must also be solved for them.”
When asked the core question of fairness—”The fundamental question you can of course ask is whether a status holder should then get priority over for example a starter on the housing market, who might have to stay with his parents for years”—she answered: “For me the fundamental question is that everyone who is allowed to and wants to live in the Netherlands gets a roof over their head.”