Rotterdam city council plans to extend its ban on low income families moving into certain parts of the city for a further 18 months at least, the NRC reports on Thursday.



‘We are making progress, but the risks for current residents are still too great to allow everyone in,’ council executive Hamit Karakus told councillors on Thursday afternoon.

The income limit has operated in four problem areas – Carnisse, Tarwewijk, Hillesluis and Oud-Charlois – since 2006. This means people who want to rent a house in one of the four neighbourhoods must either have a job, a pension or student grant. The rule does not apply if people have already lived in the city for six years.

Rotterdam is the only city in the country to set income conditions for new residents. Critics say it is a way of controlling the make-up of the population in the city which has a high proportion of low-skilled migrants.

Karakus also plans to extend the income limit to a fifth area, Bloemhof, where there is also a ‘vulnerable balance’ between the employed and jobless, the paper said.

Councillors will have to decide on the plan before the March 3 local elections and it must then be approved by housing minister Eberhard van der Laan.