Twenty churches prepare shelter for people with residence permits
Churches across the Netherlands are working to house status holders (statushouders) for three months, so they can leave crowded asylum seekers' centres.
Dozens of churches have signed up to house status holders, people granted a residence permit, temporarily. They are answering a call the joint churches made last Tuesday. Twenty churches are working to set up shelter, says Actie Onderdak, and another forty have registered and are still considering taking part.
More than a hundred people with a residence permit can already go somewhere and leave their asylum seekers' centre (azc), according to the organisation. Sign-ups keep coming in. In the churches that are preparing, people are laying carpet, putting up beds and checking the sanitation.
The scheme is for status holders still waiting in an azc. They could get shelter for three months in the municipality where they are ultimately to be given a home.
The Council of Churches (Raad van Kerken) says COA, the agency that runs asylum reception and is involved in working out the plan, will ensure that status holders can actually move on to a new place after three months.
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COA (Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers)
The independent government body that houses and looks after asylum seekers while their applications are processed. It runs reception centres across the country and falls under the minister responsible for asylum and migration.
Actie Onderdak
Actie Onderdak is a campaign in which churches in the Netherlands register to offer temporary housing to status holders, people who have been granted a residence permit (vergunninghouders) and are still looking for their own home. Churches taking part provide shelter in their own buildings or premises, and the campaign tracks how many have signed up and how many shelters are being set up. It matters because the availability of housing for status holders is limited, so temporary shelter from churches can bridge the period before they find permanent accommodation.