Action group Niet Te Koop

Since 2016 action group Niet Te Koop (English: Not For Sale) has been fighting the ongoing sell-off of affordable rent-protected social housing in Amsterdam. On May 18 of that year the action group occupied the ground floor apartment Borgerstraat 73.

Several years have passed since then. Amsterdam now has 53,000 social housing apartments less than in 2003. The sell-off is not stopping though, especially in the more "popular" communities, where real estate brings in the most profit.

Housing corporations, the City of Amsterdam, and social tenants draw up the so called Prestatieafspraken (English: achievement commitments), but the commitments are wafer-thin. The amount of newly built social housing is way too inadequate.

Weekly flash mobs against social housing demolition and sell-offs

Why?

The major housing corporations in Amsterdam have demolished and sold off tens of thousands of social housing dwellings to the housing market over the past 25 years. This while the demand for social housing never ceased to increase. Housing corporations say they need this money to build new social housing. Instead the money ends up in:

• exaggerated salaries and pension schemes for the top executives
• money squandering and inefficient work organizations
• speculation and investment frenzies that have nothing to do with social housing
• way less, smaller, and more expensive temporary contract dwellings
• expensive private sector rental homes that are beyond the financial reach of most social housing tenants

Less affordable housing means more people forced to find more expensive housing or even forced to leave the city. This means that people with socially important professions (teachers, nurses, firemen, etc.) will disappear from Amsterdam, creating a decreasing availability of socially relevant services to the inhabitants of the city.

Furthermore, the displacement and departure of low- and middle income citizens, has a negative effect on the diversified composition of the population in areas of the city and the city as a whole: social economic cleansing and gentrification.

When?

Every Saturday at 3 PM action group Niet Te Koop organises a flash mob against the sell-off of a rent-protected social house in Amsterdam.

How?

The flash mob lasts about half an hour and includes:

1. handing out leaflets in the neighbourhood and engage in discussions with local residents and passers-by
2. wallpapering the house at hand
3. making recordings for publicity's sake

Action group Niet Te Koop provides banners, posters, and such. Of course you can bring your own material.

The location is announced the day before (or earlier), also through:

• our website www.niettekoop.org (Dutch)
• the HuurdersBelangZuid newsletter (Dutch)

More information

• Website: www.NietTeKoop.org