NL’s most deprived neighbourhoods call for social engineering

Local councils must be able to stop more “vulnerable” people such as the jobless and asylum seekers moving to areas that are already suffering high unemployment and other social problems, according to officials charged with making improvements. 

Twelve directors from a national programme for boosting standards and living conditions in poor neighbourhoods say in an opinion piece in Friday’s AD that the current strategy is undermining efforts to help people in the most deprived inner city areas.

“We are dealing with … children who go to school without breakfast, three times as many people on benefits than in the average area, more school dropouts, more disputes between neighbours, growing and poisonous criminality,” they say. 

“We are working hard to combat this inequality… to make sure that the poorest parts of the country have the schools, jobs, housing, life and safety that people have a right to.”

However, the directors say, that being continually asked to provide homes for more people with problems is undermining their efforts to boost the quality of life in their districts.

“We need unorthodox measures,” the group said. In particular, they say priority in housing should be given to working people and “people looking for a place to live who do not demand extra attention from neighbours or the local authorities.”

“This can be done by smart management of housing corporations’ waiting lists, by performance agreements between councils and housing corporations, and through special measures for private landlords,” the officials said. More prosperous neighbourhoods should also contribute by providing housing for people who are in difficulty, the directors say.

In total, 20 different parts of the country in 19 cities have been earmarked for additional help and efforts to combat inequality. But that effort is wasted if people come home to a neighbourhood where they feel unsafe and is already beset by problems, the directors say.

“Piling up problems in our neighbourhoods is threatening the effectiveness of our approach,’ they say. “We need more perspective.” 

A delegation from the NPLV projects is due to meet MPs next week to discuss the situation. Funding for the NPLV project is due to expire next year. 

Some 10 years ago, Rotterdam was subject to a similar social engineering project, in which four housing corporations agreed to stop people without jobs or who have a history as problem tenants moving to the city’s most deprived areas.