Economic Homelessness: How Enough Is Not Enough

Economic Homelessness is also referred to as "the working poor", but I find this description not to be very accurate. How I know? I am about to become economically homeless. The people who have enough, but yet at the end of the day don't have a house.

What is economic homelessness?

To state it really short and simple it entails that you have the means to rent or buy property, but you are not able to get a house nonetheless. Nowadays this is mostly due to soaring housing prices or the lack of housing, which means many people flock to few properties for rent/sale and therefore many miss out. These people earn too much to apply for social housing or government help and thus end up on a private market that is completely overheated. Currently in the Netherlands (where I live) alone this group of homless is estimated to consist of about 40.000 people [Source]

Most of these people end up having to live with friends, family, crashing couches or booking holiday homes or hotels. The number of economic homeless has tripled (!) in the last five years.

How I might become one of these people

So for the past year my partner (mailman) and I (high school teacher) have been moving from place to place. From a shared flat with 3 other girls, to a temporary residence reserved for expats (who weren't there because of corona) to subletting from a friend's parents who have a flat for rent. We have moved three times in the past year. As our current residence is getting sold and we both got a job in a different city our search for a house has- once again- started. We earn pretty well (around 50.000 EUR a year) so you would say no problemo. But big problemo. Because there are so few properties, every time something comes on there is a crazy frenzy. I have found out that if you respond to a new place within two hours you are usually granted a viewing. Any later than that and too many people have responded and you're out. This means that next to our fulltime jobs we have to be online constantly to check and respond

When you do get a viewing (yay, you messaged straight away!) you are one of between 5-30 people who got lucky. Strangely enough all these people always respond with: yes I would like to rent/buy this! And let the frenzy begin. With buying it means having to overbid with at least 50.000 EUR. With renting it can go anywhere from who makes the most to random lotteries.

So what is the solution?

Or rather: what solutions are there, because not one thing will change this problem.

* More houses: it seems obvious: since the lack of housing is the main driver behind this problem, the solution seems to build more houses. And partially this is true. However, houses take time to design, pass the local government laws and be build. In The Netherlands the estimate is that 1 million houses are needed to solve the crisis, in the U.S. the shortage is increasing now by about 300.000 units a [year] Yikes. That's a lot of houses. What is needed are lots of houses, but also affordable and durable houses.

* More legislation: As more people enter the market their hopes rest in the hands of private companies/ individuals that face almost no regulation. When we apply for a viewing (mind you just to view it) we have to send a whopping 27 pages of information detailing our entire financial situation. These companies are then free to choose who they want on whatever criteria they want. They can also set any requirements to the renters as they please. The ones we find most commonly are: earning at least 3 or 4 times the rent (only the person with the highest income counts, no children (didn't know this was a thing, wonder if they would throw you out if you managed to get pregnant after you move..), no foreigners (oh yay racism comes in the mix too) and my favorite: no spicy cooking (imagine!). With no regulations we are in the wild wild west. The government should make sure that those that can afford it, should have a fair chance and those that can't should be entitled to social housing. I have a friend (also teacher) who is single, earns too much for social housing but was told by the realtor to come back when she has found a boyfriend, as she would never meet the rent income barrier by herself.

* Think of alternative ways of living: As we all fight over a square meter of living space it becomes clear that before new houses are built we must get creative: shared housing, tiny houses, offices made into temporary housing (think of all the empty offices during corona!), groups that want to finance a house together etc. Right now many of these alternatives have to battle regulations, reluctant banks and non-cooperative companies. However, some countries are ahead of others. Germany for example has made it much easier to take a mortgage with a group of people, allowing such innovative forms of living together.

So here we find ourselves with a large challenge in many countries at the moment. I hope we can all get creative, think outside of the box and get our governments to do the same. In the mean time we keep trying to find a place to live, but at least we have each other and that is the most important thing!

Would you like to share your insights and/or story? Do you have creative ideas on how to solve or work on this crisis? I would love to hear it!