The The Hague Residence Brigade: increased livability in deprived inner city areas
Illegal uses of buildings and homes can put a strain on the local living environment. The The Hague Residence Brigade focuses on the quality and use of the housing stock in deprived neighbourhoods. Its goal is to combine the knowledge, experience ánd manpower of different organisations involved in maintaining the housing stock, in order to be able to increase livability and decrease illegal practices.
Issue: illegal practices and neglected real estate
The project aims to tackle several issues, among which feature:
- The illegal use of buildings (for instance through illegal sub-renting);
- Tenant management;
- Social security fraud;
- Substandard building maintenance;
- Updating municipal records (GBA).
The combined effect of these actions should increase livability in
the neighbourhood, making it an attractive area for living and
developing small local enterprises.
Approach: clustering all organisations involved in order to facilitate cooperation and knowledge exchange
The project focused on specific areas within The Hague. One of the goals of this project was to physically cluster all surveillance organisations, and brought together the key institutions involved in surveillance activities:
- Municipal services concerning urban development, social services and city management;
- Police and the fire department;
- Social housing companies.
This clustering led to new working and detection methods, and to
more effective surveillance practices. Cooperation is realised
during the preparation phase and the actual surveillance of
dwellings. The different inspection agencies first combine their
archives and sources of information to ascertain at which addresses
a higher risk for a delict exists. Upon this assessment, a
surveillance team is composed from these agencies tailored to the
expected offences. This team checks several addresses during a
single action.
Results: a safer and higher quality living environment
Many of the neighbourhoods that have been involved in the project since it started show positive changes:
- Real estate prices have gone up, while prices are going down in
most parts of the Netherlands;
- Inhabitants experience a safer living environment, which they themselves feel to be of a higher quality;
- Buildings in areas under this type of surveillance show lower
crime rates.
In addition, inhabitants of the neighborhoods are closely involved
in the project. They are regularly informed about actions in their
neighbourhood, and help in detecting offences in their
vicinity.
Lessons learned: a long breath is important
Lessons learned were that it takes more than one year to lift up a neighbourhood. Another important lesson was that too strict an observance of a measure can blur the actual goal of that measure. Surveillance is not an aim in itself; it should always be considered if enforcing a measure really contributes to the actual goal of raising the livability in an area. A final point was that surveying thousands of homes and linking up several databases could threaten the right to a private family life.
Resources used: databases and inventive employees
ICT facilities and inspired employees were essential for the success of the project. Much depended on the adaptability and inventiveness of the persons realizing the project.
Beneficiaries: locals, the municipalities and tax payers in general
The inhabitants of the neighbourhood enjoy the direct effects of the project. The project enables the municipality to terminate (and reclaim) unjustly asserted social benefits, and to keep local databases up-to-date.
Contact
Patrick Sebti
e-mail: Patrick.sebti@denhaag.nl