ROTTERDAM, 7 January 2026 – Rotterdam says it provided housing to everyone the city was responsible for under the national housing quota for recognised refugees with residence permits (status holders) in 2025. The municipality also says it met this legal target in every year of the current council term.
Rotterdam reports that 1,040 status holders linked to the city received suitable housing in 2025, despite a tight housing market that you feel in every part of Rotterdam. Alderman (wethouder) Faouzi Achbar says the figures show Rotterdam taking responsibility, especially towards people building a new life here.
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland meets the 2025 housing quota for status holders
status holders are former asylum seekers who have been recognised as refugees and granted a residence permit. The national government assigns housing quotas to municipalities twice a year, based on population size, and Rotterdam says its share is 3.7% of the national total.
For 2025, Rotterdam points to a national total of 28,000 status holders, translating into 1,047 for Rotterdam before offsetting, and 1,040 after the previous year’s surplus was deducted.
Rotterdam’s annual targets show the quota completed across the council term
Rotterdam’s own overview of the past four years lists these outcomes: 2022 target 861 with a surplus of 97, 2023 target 1,337 with a surplus of 56, 2024 target 1,265 with a surplus of 7, and 2025 target 1,014 recorded with no surplus.
The municipality explains that when a city houses more people than required in one year, that surplus is offset against the following year’s quota. In Rotterdam’s case, it says this is why the 2025 figure is shown as adjusted from 1,047 down to 1,040 after accounting for 2024.
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland uses social housing and temporary sites to house people
Rotterdam says most housing is arranged through social rental homes from housing associations, backed by allocation agreements covering a share of homes that become available. With social housing supply under pressure, the city says it also relies on alternative housing forms.
These include a municipal throughflow site in an empty office building with single rooms and shared facilities (maximum stay one year), a transformed former care home with single-person studios (maximum stay two years), plus places via vacancy management locations. Rotterdam says these options are used mainly for single people and single adults who are waiting for family members arriving through family reunification.
Rotterdam links meeting the quota to easing pressure on AZC accommodation
Rotterdam connects the quota to pressure on asylum accommodation because people can only leave an asylum seekers’ centre (AZC) once they have been housed by a municipality. In other words, when housing is completed, places can open up elsewhere in the reception system.
The municipality’s message is practical: a home is what turns a residence permit into a workable next step, even while the wider housing shortage remains a daily reality across Rotterdam.
Rotterdam says families featured more in 2025, with integration starting after housing
Rotterdam says most status holders linked to the city come from countries including Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran and Turkey. It also says the 2025 group included a larger share of families with children than in previous years, which it links to the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) catching up on family reunification cases.
Once housed, status holders begin the mandatory integration programme (inburgeringstraject), learning Dutch and receiving guidance towards work, education, or volunteering. Rotterdam says people still in reception, but already assigned to the city, can start language lessons, work, or education in Rotterdam earlier, so they are not left waiting without perspective. Achbar also stresses that the focus is on people rather than totals, and that a home is the start of rebuilding a life in the city.
