“I’m still processing all the impressions and experiences from this valuable trip,” says Annemarie van Gils, management adviser at De Alliantie.
“What echoes most strongly are the words of a woman in the women’s shelter: ‘For the first time in my life, I have a home.’
That is so essential, so fundamentally important.
But also striking was the tremendous passion of so many staff members — such as a young woman at the Salvation Army, for example, who beams with joy when she talks about her work for the residents.”

(Translated by ChatGPT, edited by me.)

‘Ik ben alle indrukken en ervaringen van deze waardevolle reis nog aan het verwerken,’ zegt Annemarie van Gils, directie-adviseur bij De Alliantie. ‘Wat het meest naklinkt zijn de woorden van een dame in de vrouwenopvang: “Voor het eerst in mijn leven heb ik een thuis.” Dat is zo van wezenlijk, fundamenteel belang. Maar ook de enorme passie van veel medewerkers. Zo’n jongedame bij het Leger des Heils bijvoorbeeld, die helemaal straalt als ze vertelt over haar werk voor de bewoners. 

From: https://hvoquerido.nl/meedoen-volgens-de-finnen/

Ask me why.

It’s top down, looking down on the people who they see as completely helpless losers and in need of intensive support. It is about how good and wonderful THEY are. It is not about the people they are supposed to serve. I also miss words about learning and ideas for implementation in these oh so cute authentically waffling statements with a high TikTok value.

Let’s dive into this some more.

This woman is a management adviser, to De Alliantie, which is a housing corporation/cooperative in Amsterdam: https://www.de-alliantie.nl/ (To foreigners: these are Dutch property organizations with LOADS of money.)

Is this the same Amsterdam-based Annemarie van Gils who calls herself a principal consultant who focuses on executive coaching, team development and personal branding? Who has an MBA?

• If so, then here we have a chunk of the industry surrounding homelessness in Amsterdam. She, apparently, works at Lagerweij (https://www.lagerweij.nl/). They likely know next to nothing about homelessness.

• Then we have Carolien de Jong of Daklozenvakbond, the founder of Vest Advies (https://www.vestadvies.nl/) She likely knows very little about homelessness, but enjoys being patted on the back, like all these people, about how willing they are to put up with the horrible homeless.
  
• She works with Sheltersuit, which basically produces very heavy suits that can be turned into tents and cost 300 euros. Off the top of my head – I read about this in England – this was started after the dad of a friend of someone at the University of Twente froze to death, but they now seem to be based in the USA. The previous time I looked into them, they were still Dutch. People freezing to death present an image problem for the municipalities in which they freeze to death, in my view.

• Another chunk of the industry is Movisie (https://www.movisie.nl/).

IT IS AN INDUSTRY.

There are lots of organizations that all overlap and of which it is not clear what they do. They can get paid on the basis of referrals, which would be part of the explanation of these vague networks of initiatives. If legit, then most of them still focus on alcoholism and drug addiction which is no longer the reality.

Here is one: https://straatalliantie.nl/ This is linked to Daklozenkantoor en Daklozenvakbond.

On the latter site, I can read that homeless people in Amsterdam are no longer fined, as of 13 June 2025. Oh. That was years in the making. Mayor Halsema wont be pleased – or will she? She has made several, partly contradictory, bullshit statements about this and it made her unbelievable.

My take is that these organizations support homelessness, not homeless people. They benefit from the homelessness of others. It’s a cash cow for them.

People here around me in Amsterdam tell me that after Covid, more and more homeless people started appearing. Is it accurate or is this just because people’s perceptions changed? If accurate, I can’t comment on that as my Covid experience is British, but I do know that lots of Dutch people with businesses got into difficulty because of it. The tax authorities gave them financial support during the pandemic and then often demanded it back. I also realize that Putin invaded Ukraine at the tail end of the pandemic and that this may be related too.