Date: March 26, 2020

On February 27, 2020, the draft Housing Program of February 6 was discussed in the ASD meeting with an explanation by Geert van der Bruggen. Based on this Program, the discussions in the ASD on Feb. 27 and in the virtual meeting on March 26, the ASD formulated the following recommendations.

Brief summary

The ASD appreciates the active role that the Municipality wants to take in order to better adapt the housing supply in Nuenen to the housing demand in the coming years. The reasonably non-committal attitude of the past, in which third parties mainly determined the choice of housing types, is, rightly, being reversed.

The ASD's main opinions are:

1. A better understanding that for housing, housing availability alone is insufficient. Affordability and available Health among seniors are equally important.
2. A better view of the Township's responsibility to its residents.
3. More and targeted attention to starters and 1 and 2 person households, mostly in the relatively absent age group 18-45, so that they too can find suitable and affordable housing.
4. More focus on social housing and free sector rentals.
5. More higher construction in and around centers with amenities.

Introduction

The February 6 Housing Program, further abbreviated as the memorandum, provides a clear, forward-looking vision of housing in Nuenen. With the help of an external agency, current figures and expected trends have been Map out and it looks beyond the housing domain alone. It is a good, readable and useful building block for the environmental vision and plans. According to the ASD, the value can be further enhanced by paying attention to the following comments, questions and advice.

Housing is part of a chain

With the desired transformation and the advent of the omgevingswet , a government can only achieve its goals by taking an integrated approach to problems and helping to solve them. The note therefore affects and is affected by other domains, e.g. health
social domain and mobility. For example, if the Municipality focuses only on housing construction, but not also on digitization and cooperation in Health, that is insufficient to enable independent living for the elderly.1) Housing that remains unaffordable for a target group does not solve
their housing problem.2) Recommendation: Emphasize even more and show even better that the note is part of a chain that, only in conjunction with each other, can contribute to living suitable for residents.

Role, task and responsibilities of the Municipality in housing

It is a common interest to want to be a forward-looking and engaged municipality. Everyone in Nuenen benefits if the existing inequality between residents is reduced. There will then be less unrest, more safety and fewer mutual antagonisms. This has consequences for the Municipality EN the residents. The memorandum makes many statements about the desired role of the Municipality, but less about the legal tasks.

Advice: Name and formulate the role, task and legal responsibilities of the Municipality. Then it is clear whether an action is an obligation or an own choice. The obligation can be controlled, the own choice is politically determined. It can and should be weighed against other desires. Also explicitly formulate the instruments the Municipality can use to achieve its goals.

Heterogeneity of residents

Many residents in Nuenen are financially strong and/or have an excellent ability to fend for themselves and do and want to do so. Others struggle with their place in society, their income, with standing up for themselves and with the participation required of them. Without help they cannot make it.

Advice: Even if the Municipality withdraws and the inhabitants have to figure it out for themselves, within the set rules, there remains the responsibility for the Municipality to continue to support (or have supported) the weak. Besides stimulating desirable activities, there is room, and for some residents, a need, for a coordinating and executive role of the Municipality. It is up to the inhabitants themselves, but the Municipality remains, in my opinion, responsible for ensuring that the inhabitants can also participate.

The arbitration role of the Municipality between residents disappears, in principle, after the implementation of the omgevingswet. Leaving matters to the market will benefit the wealthy. For the people who are just starting to work or are not wealthy or are going to live together for the first time, the Municipality must guarantee that they indeed have equal rights.

Recommendation: Write the plans and rules in this paper in such a way that all residents have equal rights.

Residential conversion

Elderly people are reluctant to leave their homes and, if at all necessary, to remain in the same neighborhood. Subdivision of these homes can then meet the desire for smaller and more life-sustaining housing for these elderly and/or first-time buyers. Perhaps the corporations can play a role in this.

Advice: Consider whether the Municipality can play an active role in buying up these homes and converting them (or having them converted) or whether the Municipality should actively encourage and/or facilitate private parties to take on the conversion.

Young adults (18-45 years old)

In the population pyramid of Nuenen, compared to that of Southeast Brabant, it is noticeable that the age group 20-45 years is relatively small. Studying in another city is a partial explanation, but not for the entire group, which includes many starters and 1 and 2 person households. For the future sustainability of Nuenen, it is important that they too can find suitable and affordable housing. We fully endorse the decision to make housing available for this group as well. Affordable starter homes are then an option, provided they also remain affordable for the next owner. Without measures, this will probably not succeed. Then the housing will be withdrawn from the target group again. What is the most effective way to counter this? The memo makes the proposal of an anti-speculation clause with mandatory longer living. Circumstances may make that impossible. Question: is leasehold then a better idea?

Housing stock analysis

Nuenen has a relatively large number of owner-occupied homes. This is often seen as an advantage because owners, in principle, benefit more from a livable environment than tenants. In the Netherlands, and in many other countries, therefore, home ownership has been strongly encouraged by the government with financial incentives. Yet the disadvantages are also becoming noticeable. Despite many subsidies (interest deduction), there was and is scarcity and housing has become financially unattainable for first-time buyers. The gap between homeowners and first-time buyers is virtually unbridgeable. Homeowners will very strongly oppose measures that affect their immediate living environment, in their eyes. The status quo prevails, necessary changes are difficult to implement or virtually impossible. Corporations will be asked to build social rental housing. The incentive for free sector rental housing is less apparent. Consequence: inflexibility prevails, inequality persists and/or grows and there is less willingness to move for work or a, given age, better adapted home.

Opinion: Don't just facilitate home ownership, as has been the case for the past few decades, but also promote social housing and free sector rental housing.

Social housing

The target is 30% social housing (rent, buy) for new housing. The Municipality has not succeeded in this before. Question: What will the Municipality do differently to ensure that this wish is now realized? Is this still possible in the plans for Nuenen West, the last major expansion for the time being?

Skewed rentals

Skewed rents deprive housing for the target population and limit flow. Suggestion: Develop policies on skewed rents and Health that people are aware of them. If a housing corporation directly provides or allows through others to provide supply of rental housing in the free sector, then people in social housing can be offered something if they are living skewed and flow is improved.

Higher population density in centers

There is a strong demand among many, including the young and elderly, for living in close proximity to amenities. To please as many residents as possible, land-bound building in and around centers with amenities is inadvisable. Higher building with a higher population density offers the possibility of an area with more activities, more facilities, more liveliness and frequent public transport. More people can then use it both during the day and in the evening. There are many successful examples of centers with higher construction.

Recommendation: Accept and encourage higher building to become the starting point for centers (including downtown, Core Quarter).

Substantiation

The rationale for the note is based on the 2018 Housing Map, based on pre-2018 data. This numerical data does not yet take into account, or does not adequately take into account, the (hundreds of) migrant workers, the right of free settlement and the regionally applicable urgency scheme. These numbers are too large to ignore. Also, the trends from report 1) and 2) are not noticeably used.

Recommendation: Use the trends mentioned and as soon as reasonable estimates are available of currently unknown data, do mention them and also incorporate them.

Benefit tax

Benefit tax is a tax for a provision made by the Municipality. If the gas grid needs to be reduced then that is, in principle, a matter for the local grid operator and not the Municipality. It does not seem reasonable, and legally questionable, that a Municipal Benefit Tax can be imposed on residents who do not participate in a desired transition.

Advice: Look at what measures can be used to entice (carrot) or discourage (stick) homeowners to participate in the desired energy transition. 2).

Lots

Lotting does not shorten a queue and ignores the length of waiting time of those enrolled. It is not a solution to long waits, but it does change the predictability of waiting time into unpredictability. Q: Why is lotting a better strategy for reducing waiting time than the queue based on enrollment time used so far?

New developments

Recommendation: The paper becomes broader if explicit attention is also given to the development of tiny houses and housing groups.

Literature consulted

1. Old and Living in 2030, Report Committee on the Future of Health the Elderly Living at Home, January 15, 2020.
2. Housing and feelings of unease, Planning Bureau for the Living Environment, March 12, 2020.