Next Steps in Choice-based Letting in the Dutch Social Housing Sector

Abstract

In the Dutch social housing sector, after almost 20 years of allocating dwellings with choice-based letting (CBL), there is a growing need to adapt the allocation systems currently in use. The policy debate on improvements in housing allocation centres around three main themes. First, many policymakers are torn between the egalitarian idea of freedom of choice for all customers in the social housing market and the desire of housing associations to provide preferential treatment to certain categories of customers, such as low income groups, large households, elderly people, local residents, occupational groups, or residents from redeveloping neighbourhoods. Second, housing associations would rather do away with long waiting lists and find the right balance between doing justice to those customers needing urgent housing and those seeking a dwelling in the longer term to better suit their needs, thus improving the efficiency of housing allocation. Third, both housing associations and local governments are discussing ways of using the allocation system to change disadvantaged neighbourhoods into sustainable communities. All through The Netherlands housing associations are carrying out experiments to find solutions to these three dilemmas. This review details the current debates and experiments, and places them into the wider context of the role and function of housing associations in society.

Key Words:

• Social housing
• choice-based lettings

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Suzanne Davis, for adding important empirical insights to this paper's first draft, as well as our colleagues at the Department of Urban Renewal and Housing at OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology, for their comments on earlier drafts.

Notes

1. Out of the three million households renting a dwelling, 46 per cent of all dwellings, 2.5 million live in social housing. According to the Dutch VROM council (2004) almost half belong to the primary group of deprived households because their income is only marginally higher than the statutory minimum income. Of those who earn more, 720,000 live in a low-priced dwelling with a monthly rent lower than 358 € (price level of 2002). This is little less than a third of all households in social housing.