Time-outwoningen de oplossing voor overlast in de wijk?

Screaming matches, threats, extreme pollution, and late-night arguments, sometimes with fatal consequences. In neighborhoods with a large number of social housing units, residents regularly suffer from a growing number of severely disturbed individuals. Erik Gerritsen, director of housing association Ymere, therefore wants to see the creation of time-out accommodations where troublemakers can receive intensive treatment. Gerritsen: "We need to intervene more quickly before things really get out of hand." Ymere director Erik Gerritsen lists the examples of nuisance one after the other: "The incidents that make the most news are those with fatalities. Like the ones we know from Noord and the Jordaan. But also people shouting in the street, drunk, and a while ago I also had to deal with someone who walked naked through the Albert Heijn supermarket and wasn't considered a danger to himself or his surroundings by the psychiatric team. He was sent back to one of our properties and never opened his door. He was extremely avoidant of care. Until there was a leak and we discovered he was using the walls as a toilet and the toilet as a trash can. Under terribly sad circumstances for the person himself, he was taken away sick, and we spent approximately €40,000 renovating that property." "In some cases, it's wise not to keep trying to keep someone in a neighborhood, because that's not in their best interest, nor in the best interest of all the other tenants." Ymere director Erik Gerritsen therefore wants solutions to be implemented quickly. He's not alone. In recent years, the police have registered an increase from 8,000 to 10,000 reports of nuisance in the city. Approximately 30% of the 40,000 homes that Ymere rents out in Amsterdam are, according to a municipal requirement, allocated to so-called vulnerable Amsterdammers. This includes people with a medical emergency, the formerly homeless, ex-convicts, refugees with refugee status, and people with a mental healthcare (GGZ) assessment. Especially among this last group, around 15% of cases involve serious and often long-term nuisance for local residents. "So that's a serious problem," Erik Gerritsen acknowledges. Complaints not shared A common complaint from neighbors of people with mental health issues is that too little is done with nuisance reports. For example, after the incident on Hazelaarstraat in Noord last year, where a distraught resident stabbed a man to death, it emerged that residents had been reporting the nuisance for months, but no action was taken. Complaints received by all the relevant agencies, such as Ymere, the police, housing counselor HVO Querido, and the municipal Nuisance and Care Reporting Center, had not been compiled and shared. This has been the agreement with the municipality since 2019, which is also the case manager in this matter. Faster Intervention The question is: how difficult is it for administrators to collect complaints from all parties so that faster action can be taken? Gerritsen: "That's always difficult to explain; you're dealing with so many parties, and no one is in charge. It leads to a lack of action. This really needs to improve." And Gerritsen takes this personally. "I don't blame the police neighborhood coordinator, the housing association's district manager, or the outpatient care provider, but we as administrators need to be much more vigilant so they can do their jobs better. It's a complex situation, but we're not going to let it go now." Even after the fatal stabbing in the Jordaan district in June of this year, it turned out that not all parties involved were aware of the residents' complaints about their neighbor. Incidentally, the neighbor lived in a Ymere social housing unit through the housing network. Gerritsen wants a solution as soon as possible. And that requires radical decisions. Back to old-fashioned mental healthcare in the woods Gerritsen: "It's important that we move away from the naive idea that everyone is capable of living in a regular neighborhood. So, to some extent, we need to return to the old-fashioned mental healthcare in the woods; far too many cuts have been made to it. That's also better for the people themselves; they are excessively care-avoiding, and the mental healthcare system also says they are untreatable. The only thing you can do is accept that this is their lifestyle, but they shouldn't burden others with it, or themselves, because then they'll end up in a situation that's unacceptable." ❌ ❌ ❌ AT5 - Real Amsterdam News Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:    / at5   Tips or comments? WhatsApp: 06 511 909 38 Phone: 020 555 1155 Follow AT5: www.at5.nl Instagram: instagram.com/at5.nl Facebook: facebook.com/at5nl Twitter: twitter.com/at5