Coline van Everdingen on Fair Space for Life

On 22 January 2026, the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights hosted a Pick Our Brains session with Coline van Everdingen, titled "Fair Space for Life: Social Pathways Toward Thriving for All". Dr. Coline van Everdingen, a medical doctor and public health specialist, who gave insights from over ten years of research on disadvantaged groups in Dutch society, with a particular focus on homelessness. Her work is grounded in extensive field research conducted between 2015 and 2017, including 437 interviews with homeless service users in the Netherlands.

She highlighted that homelessness in the Netherlands affects approximately 33,000 people, with particularly high prevalence among migrants, women, and adolescents. Importantly, official figures only include individuals with social security numbers, meaning that undocumented or unregistered people remain invisible in statistics. Following the 2015 devolution of welfare responsibilities to municipalities (covering youth, work, and care), gaps in service provision have widened.

The Pick Our Brains sessions of the Maastricht Centre for Human Rights bring together PhD researchers, senior members of the Centre, and colleagues from other research groups and institutions. These sessions aim to stimulate intellectual exchange and foster potential collaborations within and beyond the Centre.