Zoning could help us love our neighbors
By Frank Boersema, Mary De Ridder, Mary Johnson, Nancy Miller, Pam Nordhof, Beverley Rannow, Kris Van Engen, June Veldheer, Al Ver Schure, Kristin Slater, Lou and Mary Ann Wagenveld, and Ron Wolthuis
Holland Bread for the World
As members of Holland Bread for the World, a Christian anti-hunger advocacy team, we are watching with concern as Holland grapples with its inadequate stock of affordable housing. While one can easily see that households with high housing costs have less money for food, the case of homelessness leads to less obvious connections to hunger.
Many homeless people rent a place to sleep in someone else’s home. For simplicity, we will use the term “couch surfer” to refer to a person or family making do with such an arrangement. Couch surfers do not necessarily have access to a kitchen. If they do, they do not necessarily have access to cupboard space or a refrigerator. If they do have access to such storage space an