THE NETHERLANDS

No More Homeless in Seven Years! By Roy Mannaart, Amsterdam (Originally in Dutch)

The leaders of The Netherlands’ four major cities have made an agreement with the government that within seven years all their homeless residents must be off the streets, and expect that within the first four years of this effort eighty-percent of the homeless problem can be solved. In this agreement they have committed themselves to helping homeless citizens find housing, work and medical care. And through the project the cities will also try to prevent more people from becoming homeless. Moreover, the Dutch government will invest 170 million euros a year in the effort, with the expectation that by 2013 there will be no more homeless on the streets.