8,612 tenants have reported to their housing corporation with payment problems since the start of the corona crisis, according to an inventory of NRC among 197 corporations, which together have approximately 1.6 million social rental homes.
Most tenants with payment problems are self-employed workers and freelancers, who see their income cut due to the corona measures. Tenants of commercial spaces are also struggling.
The housing associations expect the number of tenants with payment problems to rise, because the financial buffer of many tenants is not infinite.
“The big problem is only now emerging,” says Jozefine Hoft, director of the Vereniging Sociale Verhuurders Haaglanden (SVH), a partnership of fifteen corporations, to NRC. “Most tenants still had a salary before March, were able to bridge April with a buffer, but for May the question is whether that will still work.”
The Rental Housing Quality Center estimates that the income of 360,000 households has become uncertain due to the corona crisis.
Housing corporations agreed at the end of March with Housing Minister Stientje van Velthoven that no evictions should take place during the corona crisis. Minister Kajsa Ollongren of the Interior also introduced an emergency law last week in order to be able to temporarily lower rents.
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