Stoelenproject - Homeless Shelter Amsterdam (2024)

FAQs

Why are there so few homeless people in Amsterdam? ›

Because of the Dutch welfare system, Amsterdam has a smaller proportion of homeless people than New York City, although more people are homeless in Amsterdam today than 15 years ago. Neither a lack of affordable housing or sufficient income nor unemployment has been a direct cause of the increase of homelessness.

The departure point in terms of Dutch law is that the country's inhabitants who need support must always be given that support. 4 They can seek housing in any municipality.

Welcome. The Stoelenproject is the most accessible evening and night shelter in Amsterdam.

Between 2007 and 2015 the Dutch system of social support and long-term care, including homelessness services, was substantially reformed. Since then, municipalities have been under the Social Support Act (Wmo) responsible for the provision of social support, emergency shelters and protected living arrangements.

Habitat for Humanity estimated in 2024 that 1.53 billion people around the world live in "inadequate shelter". Nigeria and India are the two countries with the largest homeless populations. Nigeria ranks 1st with 25 million homeless people and India takes 2nd place with 18 million homeless people as of 2024.

At least 895,000 people in Europe were homeless last year, a new report has found, shedding light on a trend made worse by Russia's war on Ukraine. Germany registered 84,500 rough sleepers in 2022 while Spain recorded more than 28,500.

One in five households in Amsterdam lives in poverty.

Which countries don't have homeless people? The homeless rate is difficult to define or track in many countries, but several reports show Japan has a 0% official homeless rate.

Around 40% of these people live in one of the four major cities of the country, namely Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotter- dam or Utrecht (CBS, 2019b). In Amsterdam alone, 24 people become homeless every week, of which 70% are the so-called 'economically' homeless (De Regenboog Groep, n.d.).

Shelter encourages visitors to dress in a way that matches their personality. As such, Shelter does not maintain a clearly defined dresscode. However, suits, dress shirts, football shirts or any kind of insulting apparel, like explicitly discriminatory shirt prints, can be denied access.

Is it hard to get housing in Amsterdam? ›

Even for locals it has become extremely difficult to find housing, for newcomers this is even more pressing. The crisis is nationwide, but in Amsterdam the situation is most dire. Please take this into consideration when making the choice to come to the Netherlands.

Kolenkit District (Dutch: Kolenkitbuurt) is a neighbourhood in Amsterdam, Netherlands. In 2009 Eberhard van der Laan, the Minister of Housing, referred to the neighborhood as the worst in his "40 problem neighbourhoods" list.

Federal housing assistance: Federal housing programs are one of the most successful housing-based solutions to reduce homelessness. The two largest federal housing programs are public housing and federal housing vouchers, known as Housing Choice Vouchers or Section 8 vouchers.

Homelessness in the Netherlands is a growing social problem in the Netherlands, affecting 32,000 people in 2018.

At 0.003% or roughly 1 homeless person per 34,000 residents, Japan is the country with the world's lowest rate of homelessness. Moreover, with a population of around 125.7 million people, the country also has one of the lowest numbers of homeless people.

"The reason is that we didn't build so much housing in the last ten years. So, we had a drop in housing production and we had a quite steep increase in the population because of migration, especially labour migration, which is quite high," Boelhouwer said.

Iceland, with only 349 persons per night, has the lowest homeless population on the European continent and one of the lowest in the world.