Remember Jeroen van der Veer (1964-2020) --A key Dutch supporter of the social housing movement in Taiwan－社會住宅是我的夢

Remember Jeroen van der Veer (1964-2020)

--A key Dutch supporter of the social housing movement in Taiwan

Yi-Ling Chen, Associate Professor, School of Politics, Public Affairs, and International Studies, University of Wyoming

Jeroen van der Veer at An-Kang Public Housing in Taipei, 2017. Picture: Ping-Yi Lu

When I wrote about how the social housing movement since 2010 revolutionarily changes Taiwan's housing policies, I forgot to mention the foreign experts who have helped the dream come true. Those people are from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Netherlands, Germany, France, Demark, and many more. They played crucial roles to transfer the know-how knowledge and help persuade the central and local governments. Jeroen van der Veer, the vice director of the Amsterdam Federation of Social Housing (AFWC), is the most important one.

Jeroen recently passed away, which is a big shock and saddens the Taiwanese social housing folks. We lost an important supporter and a warm friend who constantly helped and cared very much about our progress in social housing.

The introduction of Jeroen into Taiwan’s society was like magic. It started in 2008 when a group of social workers had a learning tour to the Netherlands. Mei-Ling Li, who is the director of Maria Social Welfare Foundation, has advocated for the housing act and independent living for disabled people. The learning group interviewed the professor, Hugo Priemus, at Delft University. Hugo told them to find Jeroen in AFWC. Mei-Ling later said that they simply ran directly into his office in Amsterdam since they only had a short time in the Netherlands. Jeroen gave them a spontaneously warm welcome and offered his knowledge of social housing to these accidental visitors. Mei-Ling was impressed and told Jeroen that she would invite him to Taiwan. In 2010, Jeroen was in the first-ever international conference of social housing in Taiwan with other two Dutch experts, Ingrid Blok from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, and Jos van Loon from Arduin Foundation.

Four months after Jeroen’s visit, Social Housing Advocacy Consortium (SHAC) was formed in Taiwan. The context was that housing price was skyrocketing after 2005 and created mounting social discontents. The establishment of SHAC gained immediate supports. The first social housing project was completed in 2014 with 272 units. Now there are 16,972 units. The ratio of social housing rose from 0.08% in 2010 to 0.19% in 2020. The Housing Act was passed by Legislation Yuan in 2016. The process was not always smooth and had a lot of up and down moments.

When looking back, it felt like a miracle because the term “social housing” was not even a common vocabulary in Taiwan at all before 2010. At the stagnant time, the foreign experts, especially Jeroen van der Veer, were very crucial to persuade the policymakers and the society that social housing is the right direction to go. The International Conference on Social Housing was even bigger in 2011, experts from 6 countries were invited. Jeroen came to Taiwan for the second time.

https://maria.org.tw/index.php?incfn=inc_story_detail.php&ID=1243

There were hesitations in the beginning because the governments were concerned about the expenses and the implementation. The majority of housing scholars have been influenced by neoliberal ideology and argue for less government. The international conferences had a strong impact because they provided experiences and justifications. One strategy of the social housing movement was to bring foreign housing experts to meet with the presidents, mayors, and politicians. This strategy turned out successful because it caught up the media’s attention and discussions, which became political pressure for politicians. Social housing hence has been a campaign issue in the elections of the president and mayors of major cities in Taiwan.

International Conference on Social Housing in Taiwan, 2011. https://www.maria.org.tw/index.php?incfn=inc_story_detail.php&ID=1246

Visit Taiwan’s President, Ma Yin-Joe in 2011. https://www.president.gov.tw/NEWS/15872

I met Jeroen van der Veer at An-Kang Public Housing International Workshop in the summer of 2012. The conference focused on Dutch Experiences. Jeroen invited his mentor Dick Schuling, Riny Sprengers, area manager of New-Went Housing Association, Stadgenoot, Amsterdam, and an outstanding young architect, Jeroen Atteveld. During that time, social housing was still not gaining a lot of supports from the government. The workshop was run by the SHAC without a big budget. I later made fun of them as exploited laborers because the flights, hotels, and pays were not much and they worked more than 14 hours per day on giving talks, visiting politicians and local residences of public housing, and several workshops on participatory design. I noticed the happy partying spirit of Dutch people for the first time. Their average heights were also very impressive. The meeting places in the low-income neighborhood did not have good airconditioning. Those summer days were hot and long hours. They listened, gave advice, questioning, and worked with low-income people. They were serious and gave their best to help. They also made the process very enjoyable like having a big party. I had a lot of fun and learned so much from them.

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/112778315311464712372/album/AF1QipNkqzqrhqPApfFOIC1JWAhrfoLPCFZKHxw84rYH#slideshow/5776519326592034626

When I was a doctoral student at Rutgers University in the US, my well known urban theorist professor, Susan Faintein, loved Amsterdam very much. She said Amsterdam was the best city in the world. I made the dream to go to Amsterdam one day. When I had my first sabbatical in 2017, I stayed in Amsterdam for six months. I was originally planning to stay for about three months, but I changed my mind in the first week when I biked around the canals in Amsterdam. I was very lucky to gain a lot of help from Riny and Jeroen. They brought me different sites of social housing, museums, and exhibitions. Jeroen introduced his housing friends to me. We planned to write a book on social housing in the Netherland together for the Chinese readers. It is too bad now I am alone to accomplish the idea. We also had several ideas to make comparisons with different countries. The memory with Jeroen grew abundantly after the six months’ stay in Amsterdam, which also became my favorite city in the world. We went to conferences together and parties together. We met so often in a year and later saying serious goodbye became redundant.

The first International Social Housing Festival (ISHF) was organized in Amsterdam in 2017. Jeroen suggested the participation of Asian housing people. I worked with him to organize the panel called “Social Housing from Ground Zero: East Asian Experiences against the Dutch background.” Seoul City Government and the organizers of SHAC presented in the panel. Jeroen also supported the second Asian panel at the Social Housing Festival at Lyon in 2019, in which Hong Kong also participated.

The support from Jeroen van der Veer to Taiwan’s social housing movement was tremendous. He was always there for Taiwan’s people when we wanted to know more about social housing in Amsterdam. It was also true for housing people in South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and more. The socialist spirit was embedded in him and we benefited so much from his generosity and understanding. He is a sweet, smart, sympathetic, and positive person. I also have to mention Jeroen ‘s wife Ashimi. She has played such an important bridge to communicate with the people coming from the same continent as her. Her great support for Jeroen also played a big part to make the dream of social housing become true in Taiwan. I feel deeply sorrowed for Ashimi and thank what they both have contributed to a part of housing history in Taiwan. It is more than thanks we can express. Thank you, Jeroen.