Amsterdam allocates €6m to tackle street drug nuisance

Amsterdam is allocating €6 million to tackle rising street drug nuisance, with more shelter and care, extra cleaning and tougher action against repeat offenders. The city is focusing on the Oosterparkbuurt and the H-buurt in Zuidoost, where the municipal executive says quality of life is under severe pressure.

Police recorded 1,710 reports of alcohol- and drug-related nuisance in the first half of this year, up from 1,363 in the same period a year earlier, according to the city’s letter to the municipal council.

This winter, Amsterdam is providing 274 additional places through its winter shelter and cold-weather scheme. It will also add 37 overnight shelter places with drug-use rooms for homeless people with addictions, who often avoid regular winter shelters because drug use is prohibited there.

The city is also examining whether it can make 250 permanent places for short-term shelter available from April, alongside 50 places for recovery and stabilisation.