Squatting in the Netherlands


Squatting in the Netherlands refers to the occupation of unused or derelict buildings or land without the permission of the owner. The modern squatters movement began in the 1960s in the Netherlands. By the 1980s, it had become a powerful anarchist social movement which regularly came into conflict with the state, particularly in Amsterdam with the Vondelstraat and coronation riots.
Some squats in cities have successfully legalised into still extant social centres and housing cooperatives such as ACU in Utrecht, the Grote Broek in Nijmegen, the Landbouwbelang in Maastricht, ORKZ in Groningen, the Poortgebouw in Rotterdam and Vrankrijk in Amsterdam. There have also been squats in the countryside such as Fort Pannerden and the Ruigoord village.
Squatting was criminalised in October 2010. Between then and November 2014, 529 people were arrested. Some recent high profile evictions have included ADM, the Tabakspanden and De Vloek. The social movement continues in diminished form, with squatting still being used by certain groups, for example the migrant collective We Are Here.

Beginnings

Squatting in the Netherlands in its modern form has its origins in the 1960s, when the country was suffering a housing shortage whilst at the same time many properties stood derelict. Property owners kept buildings empty in order to speculate and drive the market price upwards. Squatting was seen as a political, anti-speculation move, influenced by the Provo movement. Property owners often neglected to repair buildings in the hope of obtaining demolition permits. Squatting gained legal status under a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 1971 which stated that the concept of domestic peace, requiring permission from the current occupant to enter a building applied to squatters as well as any other occupant. This meant that property owners could only evict squatters by taking them to court.

Consolidation

The squatting movement took on an increasingly anarchist tone during the 1980s. In the Vondelstraat Riots, police moved to evict residents from a squatted building on the corner of Vondelstraat in Amsterdam, but it was immediately reoccupied and barricades erected. Street fights ensued between riot police and the squatters, with the building only being cleared when a military tank demolished the street barricades. Queen Beatrix's coronation later that year saw more riots when squatters chanted "No home, no coronation". In Groningen the eviction of the WNC squat in 1990 led to 137 arrests and the mayor called it war.
In the past, squats sometimes went through a process of legalisation. This is the case with the Poortgebouw in Rotterdam, which was squatted in 1980. In 1982, the inhabitants agreed to pay rent to the city council, forming a housing cooperative of 30 people with a bar and venue on the ground floor. In Amsterdam, OCCII, OT301 and Vrankrijk are examples of legalised social centres. In the 2010s, Vrankrijk hosts mainly punk and queer parties. The NDSM former shipyard zone was recognised as a cultural hotspot and breeding place, successfully institutionalising in the early 2000s. The Grote Broek in Nijmegen was squatted in 1984 and legalised in the 2000s. The Vrijplaats Koppenhinksteeg in Leiden was occupied in 1968 and eventually evicted in 2010. ACU in Utrecht was squatted in 1976 and bought by the squatters in 1994. It provides a venue space for benefit concerts, an anarchist library, a bar and a vegan restaurant. There are also squats which refused or were unable to legalise such as De Blauwe Aanslag in The Hague, Het Slaakhuis in Rotterdam, ADM in Amsterdam and the Landbouwbelang in Maastricht. The Landbouwbelang is a former grain silo beside the Maas river which houses 15 people and provides space for art exhibitions, music events and various festivals.
ORKZ, or the Old Roman Catholic Hospital, is located in Groningen on the Verlengde Hereweg. The hospital was squatted in August 1979 and legalised in 1986. Nowadays, 250 people live there in 235 apartments. Another 150 people make use of the ateliers. A derelict parking lot was taken over and made into a guerilla garden. Herbs and vegetables were grown in raised beds, fruit bushes were planted and an apiary was set up. The garden was legalised by the city council in 2012.
There are also some squats in the countryside such as a squatted village called Ruigoord near Amsterdam. Fort Pannerden was occupied in 2000 by people concerned about the state of the building. It was evicted on November 8, 2006, by a massive police operation which used military machinery and cost one million euros. The squatters then re-squatted the fort on November 26 and have since made a deal with the local council which owns the fort. The deal stated that the squatters would receive a large piece of land to start a community in the rural area in between the city of Nijmegen and Arnhem. In exchange, the fort was handed over to local authorities, who turned it into a museum, with help provided by the former squatters.
There are still residential squats in most Dutch cities. The Dutch use the term krakers to refer to people who squat houses with the aim of living in them.

Developments

In 1987, the law was changed so that an owner could take anonymous squatters to court, rather than being required to know their names. A law was passed in 1994 which made it illegal to squat a building which had been empty for less than one year. After this, it became conventional for squatters to call the police after occupying a building and if the police were satisfied that the building had been empty for more than a year and that the squatters were living there then the owner would need to make a courtcase to regain possession. Thus, squatting became a tactic to provide housing and also to fight speculation, conserve monumental buildings, provide groups with spaces and so on. An example of conservational squatting is Huize Ivicke in Wassenaar a building which the owner refuses to repair. The villa was placed on a list of the most endangered monuments in Europe and it was squatted in 2018 by people wanting to prevent further dilapidation.
Squatting in the Netherlands, particularly in Amsterdam, became a rather institutionalised process, although the squatters movement continued to evolve with one development being the occupation of large office buildings by refugee collectives. One such group, We Are Here was established in 2012 and the collective had squatted over 30 buildings and parks by the end of 2017. In a different development, squatting was used as a tool to contest the construction of the Betuweroute, a freight railway route from Rotterdam to Germany. GroenFront! and other environmental protestors occupied several houses due to be demolished. This included a failed attempt to squat a building in Angeren.

Criminalisation

Squatting in the Netherlands became a criminal offence on 1 October 2010. In 2016, a report was published by the Dutch Government which stated that between October 2010 and November 2014, 529 people had been arrested for the new crime of squatting, in 213 separate incidents. Of these 529, 210 received convictions and 42 were found not guilty.
Following criminalisation, in Amsterdam an estimated 330 squats were evicted in two years. Contested evictions included ADM, the Tabakspanden on Spuistraat, the Valreep and Villa Friekens. ADM was a former shipyard squatted for 21 years before its eventual eviction in 2019. Around 130 people lived there in buildings, boats and temporary structures. De Vloek social centre in The Hague was evicted in September 2015 after long political struggle. There were seven arrests. In Utrecht, the disused Amsterdamsestraatweg Water Tower was occupied repeatedly in protest at the criminalisation of squatting. In 2019, a resquat was unsuccessful.

Table of notable squats

NameLocationHistory Reference
ACUUtrechtsquatted 1976, legalized 1994
ADMAmsterdamsquatted 1997, evicted 2019
Amsterdamsestraatweg Water TowerUtrechtsquatted 1980s, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018
ASCIIAmsterdamvarious squats 1999–2006
Blauwe AanslagThe Haguesquatted 1980, evicted 2003\
EffenaarEindhovensquatted 1970, legalized 1971
Fort PannerdenNear Nijmegensquatted 2000, evicted 2006, resquatted 2006, legalized 2006, renovated 2009
Grote BroekNijmegensquatted 1984, legalized 2000s
Huize IvickeWassenaarsquatted 2018
LandbouwbelangMaastrichtsquatted 2002
MoiraUtrechtsquatted 1983, legalized 1990
NSDMAmsterdamsquatted 1990s, legalized 2000s
OCCIIAmsterdamsquatted 1984, legalized 1989
OT301Amsterdamsquatted 1999, legalized 2006
PoortgebouwRotterdamsquatted 1980, legalized 1982
RuigoordNear Amsterdamsquatted 1972
SlaakhuisRotterdamsquatted 2003, evicted 2011
TabakspandenAmsterdamvariously squatted 1983 onwards, all evicted 2015
UbicaUtrechtsquatted 1992, evicted 2013
VloekThe Haguesquatted 2002, evicted 2015
VrankrijkAmsterdamsquatted 1982, legalized 1991
Vrijplaats KoppenhinksteegLeidensquatted 1968, evicted 2010
WNCGroningensquatted 1985, evicted 1990