(back)Own capacity
According to Fred Stangelaar from the Netwerk
Religieuzen Voor Vluchtelingen, only 20% of undocumented migrants refer to
NGOs for help, while 80% find their own way through their community network,
working in black and renting private housing. This small proportion of people
who refer to NGOs for housing and other necessities is due to the limited help
these organizations can provide (usually between 20 and 40 spaces), which mainly
aid the most vulnerable and sometimes don’t provide accommodation but only
legal advice, money and medical support. Those considered most vulnerable are
people with small children and people who are seriously sick. Thus most
undocumented migrants cannot depend on this help.
LOS, an umbrella organization for groups helping undocumented migrants, has
encountered a lot of reluctance among homeless organizations and federations
when trying to get them involved in its work. 2/3 of its 80 member organizations
are either offered social housing or money to rent accommodation (like a
guarantee system) by the local authorities. Rian Ederveen from LOS distinguishes
among its member organizations the older larger ones, the small family ones that
help a few people, and the more recent ones that find houses for undocumented
migrants to squat before their demolition. When an organization finds a house to
squat, it is usually thanks to the good relations it has established with a
local government housing association. It may need to pay a low rent or receive
the building for free, and this for a defined limited period. Christian and
Muslim communities also sometimes pay the rent or offer accommodation to
undocumented migrants who ask them for help.
Local authorities impose criteria
Often local municipalities finance the shelter projects of NGOs. In various
municipalities, platforms of local NGOs have implemented shelters (which include
food, legal and medical support) financed by the municipality. INLIA,
a national protestant Church organization, links the NGOs and the local
municipalities by checking whether organizations have people who are eligible
for these shelters.
The access conditions specified by the municipalities tend to be so strict
that some shelters end up with empty spaces. For example in Heerlen, the shelter
is a former hotel that has a capacity to house thirty families or persons
(units). However eighteen of the thirty rooms are presently empty due to the
local platform not finding eligible people to place there, hence leaving more
people on the streets. Stichting
Vluchteling Als Naaste (in Helmond) also houses people (for free) within
four houses of the municipality (total space for 34 people) on specific
conditions: it must know what it will do with its clients; the clients must be
undocumented people who wish to start their asylum procedure again, who wish to
return to their country, who have a serious medical condition, or who have been
homeless for a long time and need to regain a certain stability. Most
organizations only work with people who have been rejected from the asylum
procedure and not with people who have come to the country and never asked for
asylum. This is not only due to many finding their own way by staying with their
community network or renting a flat, but also because the municipalities don’t
usually finance organizations for helping other undocumented migrants. The local
authority explains its help by saying that “in this way, people aren’t on
the street”.
However Kitty Van Bussel said that last year, as many as 200 people asked
her organization for help. She estimates that only half these people had serious
enough problems enabling them to be granted accommodation. Stichting
Vluchteling Als Naaste presently has no more than 20 people on its waiting
list, in order not to raise unnecessary hopes. This organization is mainly
financed by the municipality, though also receives money from the Church. It is
often in touch with other organizations that provide undocumented migrants with
accommodation, though they also tend to be full up.
How to find NGOs
People find out about the (housing) services provided to undocumented
migrants through various ways. Vluchtelingen
Werk (Refugee Work, a large organization in Amsterdam that helps people in
their asylum procedure) provides rejected asylum seekers with a list of
organizations that may help them further. Some employees of the Immigratie
en Naturalisatie Dienst (the State Service for Immigration and
Naturalization) may also inform them on NGOs when they receive their negative
reply. People who haven’t been through the asylum procedure may also hear
about helping organizations via other people on the street or their community
network. If an organization is full, it may refer a person to other
organizations.