Numbers of homeless people are on the rise in the Netherlands, including in Eindhoven.
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (Central Bureau for Statistics) reported that the number of homeless people in the country has doubled in the last ten years. It is estimated that there are between 300 and 400 homeless people in Eindhoven.
Joke Wisseborn-Remigius, regional director of Salvation Army in Brabant and Limburg, says that by the middle of 2019, they had already served as many people as they did in the whole of 2018.
Housing shortage
Salvation Army made a national call to build at least 30,000 rental homes for socially vulnerable people. Homeless people often want to live in their own property after leaving homeless shelters, but there are simply not enough houses for them.
‘This is a nationwide problem, but it is definitely present in Eindhoven,’ says Wisseborn-Remigius.
‘Homeless people cannot rejoin society’
Another issue that the municipality of Eindhoven is working to remove the city’s current financial deficits. As a result, care authorities have lower budgets and cannot offer as much help to homeless people as in the past. This affects homeless people’s ability to rejoin society.
‘That’s a real shame. Every person who lives on the street is one too many,’ says Wisseborn-Remigius.
Source: Studio040
Translator: Rachael Vickerman
