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Malafide woningbemiddeling : een fenomeen achter de voordeur

Vonhof, J.J.C. (2011) Malafide woningbemiddeling : een fenomeen achter de voordeur.

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Abstract:This thesis focuses on the phenomenon of illegal housing mediation within the municipality of Amsterdam. Housing mediation in its general form has developed within the municipality to provide potential tenants with an easy way of finding a place to live within the so-called “free sector” of the housing market. Next to regular housing mediation, which is an integral and acknowledged part of the housing market, illegal mediation has developed, utilizing the facilities of the regular market in its processes. This form of mediation is mainly focused on facilitating individuals with criminal intentions with housing within the municipality of Amsterdam. Why this study has been conducted is the fact that the illegal branch of housing mediation is relatively invisible to the controlling organisations and, following this, what can be done to improve their controlling position to counter the phenomenon. The study is relevant in the sense that though this it can be made clear how an effective approach to the phenomenon can be formed within municipalities as well as within the cooperation between the various societal and institutional partners within these municipalities. Further, the approach of this thesis could be used to analyse and develop measures against other types of phenomena that occur within municipalities. From this, the goal of this study can be seen as exposing the phenomenon and the factors that are responsible for its occurrence, the various organisations that are confronted with its operations and their ways of approaching and countering the phenomenon, and providing improvements in the current way of countering it. The study has taken its shape though conducting an elaborate document analysis in combination with semi-structured interviews to acquire sufficient information for drawing the final conclusions. The phenomenon of illegal housing mediation is an illegal side-branch of housing mediation which has its working area outside of the scope of controlling municipal organisations. Because of this, it is possible to facilitate individuals with criminal intentions with anonymous housing possibilities within the municipality of Amsterdam. This situation is mainly provided by individuals in Amsterdam who offer their house to mediators for rent (which is illegal in Amsterdam in this form) so these mediators have a source of houses which they can offer to their clients. From the perspective of police, as well as from that of municipal divisions and housing-corporations and real estate agents, attempts are being made to counter the phenomenon, however through the shady character of it, it is hard to get a thorough grip on the phenomenon. The main limitation in this is that there is insufficient manpower available that is being allocated to countering it as well as the limited authority that is given to controlling organisations; because of the voluntary character of cooperation with controls for citizens it is hard to implement an effective way of controlling. Based upon the findings a number of recommendations has been provided to improve the finding and controlling of illegal housing mediation. The points of improvement mainly focus on enlarging the authorisations of the various controlling organisations and the strengthening of the connections between the various form of cooperation that exist within the current structures of cooperation within the municipality. In conclusion, it has been viewed that within the municipality of Amsterdam there is a broad spectrum of possibilities in existence for countering illegal housing mediation, but that the effective possibilities of doing this are not being used at optimum efficiency. Actions are being conducted as to the possibilities that the various organisations have, but no attention is given to the possible broadening of these possibilities or to the improvement or strengthening of the existing structures of cooperation. It can be concluded that there are quite a few improvements to be made to make the countering of illegal housing mediation more effective.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:88 social and public administration
Programme:Public Administration MSc (60020)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62874
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