Our Statement #
On Monday, December 22nd, just days before Christmas, an illegal eviction was
carried out at Pieter Hoochweg 110 - a Rijksmonument building capable of housing
over 20 people. A week prior, it had been reclaimed by residents and solidarity
activists of Buurtoren to make it into shelter. Despite having established
legal house peace, police and the Public Prosecution Service, with the owner
SAPROJECTEN III BV’s approval, forcibly broke the door and roof entrance of
this protected monument.
This act encapsulates a profound hypocrisy: the violent removal of people
seeking shelter during the holidays, the deliberate destruction of a cultural
heritage site, and the choice to leave a building empty while thousands remain
homeless.
The numbers expose the scandal. Amid a national shortage of 390,000 homes, over
200,000 stood empty in the summer of 2025 - 64,360 of them for more than a year.
Meanwhile, at least 30,600 people are homeless, a figure that excludes the
undocumented, the “hidden homeless”, and those couch-surfing in desperation.
This is not misfortune; it is policy. A system that prioritizes property
speculation over people, that uses tools like the “self-reliance matrix” to
deny shelter to those deemed “not vulnerable enough,” and that abandons migrant
workers and the undocumented entirely. Even the most moderate
measures
that can be adopted are voted down due to the unhindered continuation of a
dominant right-wing political establishment.
We reject a world where square meters are hoarded while human beings are
discarded. We therefore declare:
- Eviction is violence. An empty home in a city with homeless people is an act
of social violence. We demand urgent, compulsory measures to bring long-term
vacant properties into public use. - Housing is a right, not a privilege. The market has failed. We need a
massive, non-market-driven expansion of secure, affordable housing for all. - No one is “too self-reliant” for a home. End assessments that deny shelter
based on this criterion. Restore a universal right to housing support. - Solidarity over charity. Our fight is unified. We support grassroots direct
action and community-led solutions that bypass a failing state.
The empty homes everywhere in our city are a sign of broken promises. We will
no longer tolerate the contradiction of vacant houses and over-crowded
shelters. The vacant houses stand waiting. We demand our right to come home.
Rijnmond article #
Via Rijnmond.nl:
We’re doing this because homelessness is a growing problem that the
municipality can’t seem to solve. There are approximately seventeen thousand
vacant homes in Rotterdam, and the number of people on the streets is
constantly increasing.As an organization, we can’t offer professional shelter, but the idea is that
with these kinds of buildings, we can at least provide a roof over the heads
of some people. An eviction like the one that took place this afternoon means
that people won’t be sleeping in these buildings tonight, but on the streets.