“The politicians are not going to do it for us, we need to do it!” is ASVA’s Job Vermaas’ call to action for all students. Last Thursday, the Amsterdam student union ASVA put their money where their mouth is and organised a protest against the mounting student housing crisis.

“The rooms that a lot of students live in are shit, we call them ‘kutkamers’ (dogshit rooms)”, says Job. He argues that this is a direct consequence of the current housing shortage for students, which is caused by a municipality that is reluctant to build new social housing and a growing number of international students. “We have a deficit currently of around 6600 student housing, and in 2028 that will be 21.500 at least.”

Adding insult to injury, a recent housing project that would house 2500 students in Amstelveen got cancelled by the government, due to worries of noise pollution by overflying planes. “That’s absolutely bizarre”, says Job, “because [student complex] Uilenstede has been there for over 50 years and a few metres to the other side of the street there is Kronenburg, and people are not allowed to live there.” He suspects that this block is a result of lobbying by Schiphol airport, which is looking to expand.

The ‘Kronenburg’ project was to be built by housing corporation DUWO, whose spokesperson Gijsbert Mul was at the protest. He says DUWO finds the block by the government “astonishing”. “We hope the plans have not been cancelled entirely, because we are still in legal proceedings at the highest court in the Netherlands, the ‘Raad van State’ ”.

For now, Job continues his call to action: “what students need to do is protest. They need to make clear to the national government that actions like this – stopping Kronenburg – are not acceptable. That is why we are protesting here today, and this won’t be the last time we’re protesting this.”