Marcel Slockers

15 General introduction during street doctor’s consultancy hours. The most frequent complaints were problems in the musculoskeletal system, psychological issues and lung conditions. 26 Subsequently, however, there were no documented reports on health and mortality of homeless people. In 2008, GGD Rotterdam, the street doctors and the Social Health Department of the Erasmus MC started to cooperate in collecting data on mortality of homeless people in Rotterdam. Since this cooperation, data have been collected on health problems and mortality in the Rotterdam homeless population, which form the basis of this thesis. 4. How are social and medical aid for homeless people organised in the Netherlands and Rotterdam, and what changes have occurred since 2005? What has been done in order to prevent or reduce homelessness? In 2005, the former Dutch minister of Finance Gerrit Zalm, following consultation with social healthcare organisations, decided that the number of homeless people must be reduced. 27 Therefore, in 2006, the Action Plan for Social Support was implemented. The premise was that homeless people who needed but did not actively seek care would still get it. Between 2006 and 2010, social and mental healthcare organisations and addiction care services received two hundred million euros from the long-term care fund in order to provide care for homeless people in the four largest cities in the Netherlands: Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. This action plan had two goals: first, prevention of people from becoming homeless; second, reduction of the number of people living on the streets and the related nuisance. To that end, homeless people had to have access to addiction treatment programmes, mental health organisations and shelter. The process of helping homeless people to access regular housing was also to be improved. 28 Implementation of The Action Plan for Social Support was intended to result in better living conditions of homeless people. 28 From 2006, homeless people were supported in finding accommodation and help for their psychiatric and addiction problems. Homeless people needed ‘a stable mix’ of regular, stable housing, a fixed and legal income and regular contact with healthcare workers. By the end of 2010, a total of 12,436 homeless people in the four largest cities had partici- pated in aid programmes, of whom 7,476 reached the goal of the stable mix. Between 2006 and 2010, 3,634 homeless people started an aid programme in Rotterdam, which led to the stable mix for 2,108 people. 28 By the beginning of 2014, the figures showed that, since 2006, a total of 5,355 homeless people in Rotterdam had had an intake or participated in