We were very happy to welcome our friends from the Bond Precaire Woonvormen (Precarious Housing Union) to come talk with us about housing injustice in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is a city with a famously awful housing market, and the only way we, as tenants, can improve our situation is together, through collective action!
Our session began with a brief round of introductions, with RSS and the BPW both explaining what we do as organizations. Pretty quickly, the facilitators from the BPW began their slideshow (included below). First, they talked a little about what the BPW is, as a national organization fighting for housing rights and taking on landlords one precariously housed tenant at a time. They explained the concept of solidarity as a way of bringing different people together to fight against a common enemy, and how this is at the heart of their organizing strategy.
Next, we got a brief history lesson about how housing in Amsterdam got to be quite as much of a nightmare as it is now, covering everything from the 2008 financial crisis to the decline in public spending on housing aid (which we’ve seen across Europe and the US since the 1970s).
After the history of the housing crisis, we learned about the BPW’s “escalation ladder”, or the series of increasingly disruptive actions tenants and communities can take against their landlord in order to pressure them into, basically, acting like a decent human being. At first, it might be enough to inform the landlord of the situation they’ve put their tenants into. But as landlords continue to ignore the BPW’s suggestions, they’re forced to escalate resistance by calling on more and more of their solidarity network. Publicity campaigns, legal challenges, direct confrontation – all of these are tools the BPW will sometimes use in their fight for housing rights.
As the presentation continued, we heard of specific success stories where the BPW was able to secure housing for their members, the process anyone can follow if they need help from the BPW and would like to join, and about a few of their ongoing national campaigns, like Wij Weigeren de Huurverhoging (We Reject Your Rent Raise), until it was time for a break.
After the break, we split up into smaller groups to discuss our own housing situations, and how we could act together to fight for more secure housing, alongside the BPW! Just about everyone had a horror story or two about trying to find or keep housing in this city, so it isn’t surprising that the BPW’s message was so welcome.
If you’d like to get involved with the BPW, you can find their contact details in the slides below!:
2024-05-26 – BPW Amsterdam – Workshop – Fighting Housing Injustice