The expensive homeless person, in 379 words

For RTV Purmerend: Here watch back from 13:30

'In my humble opinion the world upside down, there are not too few beds but too many homeless people!!!, said VVD Purmerend parliamentary party chairman Jan Peter Dompeling on Twitter last week in response to an article from the Noord Hollands Dagblad titled 'Bed shortage in Purmerend night shelter worrying'. In that article, the director of the Purmerend social shelter, Niels Kentie, states with crocodile tears that more space would be needed for the reception of homeless people, but it cannot be found. ''We are doing what we can, but it is worrisome.''

A municipality that writes as rejection criteria for a homelessness application on its website in bold letters that being homeless is not a valid criteria for such a homelessness application that is the world upside down Mr. Dompeling, but that is my humble opinion.

The Purmerend shelter receives 1.7 million euros per year for the reception of temporarily vulnerable citizens, 1.3 million from the municipality and over 350 thousand from clients' own contributions. Simply translates a generous 1,000 euros p.p.p.m.

The result of this hefty investment from the municipality is that there are too few beds for emergency shelter so the homeless do not have to expect a roof over their heads every day, between 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m., the result of this hefty investment is that there are waiting lists of 10 months for regular assisted housing, and the result of this hefty investment is that there is a waiting period of two months for an initial intake interview to determine whether you may be placed on a waiting list at all. Because, Alderman Nijenhuis, those listings of waiting lists that come into your inbox every month are purely of those who have gone through the arduous ordeal of getting through the intake.

'Our own people first' was shouted in the council when it felt cornered during a refugee debate late last year, right after that the council spent almost 2 tons extra on homelessness. On daycare, that is. We can now drink coffee four hours longer per day, but this cup of coffee costs the taxpayer 168 euros per hour. An expensive cup of excuse coffee which, in my opinion, could have been spent on real help. But that requires a will and a vision, and that dear people, is priceless. Alderman Nijenhuis' sober-bed-bath-bread idea costs more.