“Sorry, we wish you good luck finding another room”
Documenting the Dutch housing crisis

We are seven internationals who study Anthropology in Leiden. On our Instagram account @wooncrisis, we document the Dutch housing crisis through personal stories to better understand its social and political complexity.

We came to Leiden in 2019 and, of course, we needed to find housing. We were not aware of the scarcity of housing in the Netherlands, and we were soon confronted with the tough reality of finding a place to live. Our journey of finding housing in the Netherlands involved landlords who invaded our privacy, overpriced rents, poor hygienic conditions and “no internationals” or “only Dutch-speaking” adverts in online housing groups. During our time in Leiden we heard similar stories, mostly from other students and young professionals: Many ‘hospiteeravonds’ followed by rejection, scammers, illegal subleases and discrimination in the housing market became recurring issues in our social environment. Also, outside of our social circle these problems are so severe that people generally speak of the ‘Dutch housing crisis’. When last summer one of us had to move and was forced to live on a camping site in a tent for a month, we decided to do something about it.

When last summer one of us had to move and was forced to live on a camping site in a tent for a month, we decided to do something about it.

What are we doing?
In October 2021, we started an Instagram account: @wooncrisis. The idea was to document the Dutch housing crisis through visual storytelling. On @wooncrisis we mainly share short videos of interviews with people who are affected by the crisis. In the interviews we explore how they deal or act against the challenges connected to the Dutch housing market.

Our first story showed a student who lived at a camping site in Leiden. Surprisingly (or maybe not), there were more students who also lived on the camping site until they found proper housing. The stories of the camping students renewed our interest in the housing crisis, and we went to the housing protest in Amsterdam in September 2021– the first housing protest in the Netherlands since the 80s. At the protest, we distributed a survey in which we asked people to share their stories of finding housing in the Netherlands. Over the next months, we started to conduct interviews after getting in contact with people through our Instagram page or the survey. We talked to people who work on innovative and creative housing solutions, such as activist organizations that advocate for a more equal and fair housing market. On @wooncrisis we post quotes from the survey, interview clips and share our followers’ opinions on topics such as “What would your message to the Dutch government be?” and “What does home mean to you?”.

Our main goal is to understand the housing crisis in all its complexity. By documenting individual stories and talking to activist organizations like BPW Amsterdam we aim to uncover the social and political implications that are related to finding housing in the Netherlands.

Our perspective
As the creators of @wooncrisis we want to be clear about our position: We are international students and up until now most of the interviews we published also represent the experiences of international students. This means that we and most of our interviewees moved to the Netherlands by choice. It also implies that we are socially and economically privileged enough to, firstly, move out of our homes and, secondly, move to another country. Our experiences differ from the experiences of the local population and other groups of people who do not have the same social and economic resources and are affected more severely. We are aware that international students are only a small group that is affected by a larger economic, social and political issue happening in this country. In the future, we aim to speak more to the local population to capture the variety of experiences.

Our motivations
We were surprised by how persistently the housing crisis shaped our student experience in the Netherlands. We know from personal experience how frustrating the endless efforts of finding adequate housing can be and how you are left to feel helplessly exposed to the housing crisis. By providing a platform to share and collect stories we try to create a feeling of solidarity and hopefully, we can learn from each other’s experiences to navigate the housing crisis in a better way.

Our motives to create @wooncrisis are important to understand that our focus lies on documenting and understanding the Dutch housing crisis rather than activism. Since we do not have enough knowledge yet to fully understand the causes and consequences of the crisis, we do not see ourselves as qualified to be an activist group – apart from raising awareness for the issue in general.

“I had to text if I wanted to use the kitchen, [...] and guests could stay for €35 a night” - Liene (21) from Latvia in her new room who talked to us about her former landlord and her particular house rules.

Help us
Currently, we are trying to get more in touch with local people in the Netherlands. This also involves the often demonized ‘other side’ of the housing crisis - meaning landlords, housing agencies and politicians. This crisis is a broader social issue that needs political solutions. Therefore, we believe that the housing crisis cannot be resolved by employing simplified understandings like ‘poor tenant vs. evil landlord’. With @wooncrisis we hope to encourage the debate about the extent and the urgency of the crisis and aim to be part of a bigger, reformative movement that urgently demands changes towards more equal and inclusive policies and attitudes.

Help us to create a platform to encourage people and raise awareness about the housing crisis in the Netherlands by sharing your story!

Follow us on @wooncrisis on Instagram to see more stories (link to the survey in bio).
Or share your story and ask questions via email wooncrisis@gmail.com.