Housing refugees
On this page you will find information on how the municipality of Opsterland plans to deal with the Spreading Act, housing for status holders and accommodation for Ukrainian displaced persons. You will also find contact information for if you have questions about this topic.
In Opsterland, we have been tasked with providing housing for status holders and accommodating Ukrainian displaced persons. Under the Distribution Act, we have also received a request to accommodate asylum seekers. Reception and integration are societal challenges that require a balance between humanity, responsibility, and capacity. We are contributing to the provincial mandate under the Distribution Act and are taking our responsibility seriously. At the same time, maintaining the quality of life and capacity of our villages is central to this effort.
What is a regional transition facility?
In Beetsterzwaag, we completed the Ikenhiem transition facility in mid-March 2026. This is a temporary housing facility for status holders. Status holders are people who already have a residence permit and are therefore allowed to remain in the Netherlands. This means they are permitted to move from an asylum seeker center to a home. However, there is currently a housing shortage. As a result, status holders continue to live in asylum seeker centers, and there isn’t always room there to accommodate new refugees. This leads to the well-known problems that are regularly in the national news. Through the regional transition facility in Ikenhiem, four municipalities—Opsterland, Smallingerland, Heerenveen, and Weststellingwerf—are working together to relieve the pressure on the asylum seeker centers. Asylum seekers granted refugee status are then given temporary housing in Opsterland and subsequently move on to a home in their assigned municipality.
Commit to appropriate housing solutions
The municipality is constantly exploring ways to build additional housing units to meet the legal housing requirements for status holders. This will enable various groups of residents to find suitable housing more quickly. We focus primarily on sustainable and permanent housing in our villages. This ensures a future-proof housing supply.
More information about the housing task is on the housing dashboard. Here you will find an up-to-date overview of housing construction in our municipality.
Frequently Asked Questions
Flow-through location Oosterwolde
In Oosterwolde (municipality of Ooststellingwerf) there is a transit location and FryslânDoc made a documentary about it. You can watch this documentary back via the button below.
Infographic housing refugees
Downloading and opening a document
You can open a PDF file in various PDF readers, such as Adobe Reader.
Do you have any questions?
You can submit your questions on this topic? Please send your message to huisvestingvluchtelingen@opsterland.nl.
