Dear Editor,
With much interest I have read the articles in the media about the budget cuts the Bonaire government has been forced to make in order to present a by-law-required balanced budget.
One of the measures they took was to cut the subsidies for NGOs. In particular a reduction of 13 per cent of the subsidy to the FCB, the Bonaire Housing Foundation, has led to questions to state-secretary Raymond Knops in the Second Chamber by Mrs. Joba v.d. Berg (CDA) and Mrs. Antje Diertens (D66). This reduction will result in an increase of rent per tenant of an average US $115, even for some tenants running up to no less than $302. Mr. Knops expressed his concerns about this development and is of the opinion that all parties involved have to find a solution to the problem, as he is well aware of the importance of affordable housing in Bonaire.
Kind of remarkable here is that the members of parliament, the state-secretary, and apparently also the executive council of Bonaire are not coming to the conclusion that this sad situation is the symptom of a structurally insufficient budget at the disposal of not only the government of Bonaire, but all three BES islands, to adequately and responsibly carry out their tasks.
This has been signaled in the Spies Evaluation Report and also by Ideeversa in their 2015 report on the free allowance. This last report, as the evaluation report, is compiled on the request of the Ministry of Kingdom Relations. The report concludes that for all three islands the free allowance, which is the money they receive from the ministry, is about 25 per cent too less. For Bonaire this amounts to 9.9 million, for Statia 3.2 million and for Saba 2 million per year. Having this in mind, one may wonder if not the state-secretary should be the most important party who should bring the solution to this structural problem.
Further Mr. Knops points out that housing policy is the responsibility of the island government. This may be the case, but as far as I know there is not one municipality in The Netherlands that is subsidizing house rent. The latter (huursubisidie) is a responsibility of the national government. Isn’t it about time that, in view of equality, the national government is also taking on this responsibility for the three Caribbean Netherlands islands?
Also in light of the discussion on poverty alleviation on our three islands this latest development in Bonaire is not really a step forward but clearly a further deterioration. It is clear that with this steep increase in rent for “affordable” housing, the lower income groups are the ones getting hurt. It is a strong signal that as soon as possible something needs to be done about the financial situation of the governments of all three public entities. Their financial means need to be adequate to carry out their responsibilities. To achieve this the state-secretary must carry out the recommendations in the Spies and Ideeversa reports.
Koos Sneek
Democratic Party St. Eustatius
