The Netherlands Rent Subsidy Act 1997 reduces the rent ratio for low-income tenants considerably. The Rent Subsidy Act is an open-ended scheme and that makes it highly probable that budget cuts would be enforced if expenses increased disproportionately in economically hard times. Owner occupiers in the fourth income decile and above enjoy more state support than tenants through fiscal arrangements. Both low income home owners and tenants would benefit from a reformulation of housing policy and the income tax system in a more tenure-neutral direction. In order to prevent concentrations of poverty from forming, a new area-based policy was formulated in the Netherlands which aimed to restructure the urban housing market at the neighbourhood level and mix high quality with low quality houses.
Article addresses present poverty concentrations and housing stock mix characteristics in Amsterdam.
By comparing neighbourhoods that already have a mixed housing stock to homogeneous neighbourhoods, it has been possible to see whether mixing really does correspond to significantly lower poverty rates. Results show that mixing does not in fact reduce poverty, and it is concluded that the policy does not have an empirical base.