Leaving your host family or reception centre

If you are in immediate danger, call 112.

If you do not feel safe with your host family, you can contact an aid organisation. Aid organisations offer assistance, information, mediation and more. If you are not sure which organisation can help you, call the Veilig Thuis helpline at (0800) 20 00.

You can always report to the municipal reception if you no longer want to live with your host family.

If you want to change reception centres or leave your reception centre, this is possible. Please contact your municipality to discuss your options.

Please note: Due to the major shortage of reception centres in the Netherlands, there is not always room for you in another municipal reception centre. This means that it is not always possible to move from your current reception centre to another reception centre. Changing reception centre locations is currently only possible in special cases, such as a medical condition.

If you want to move from a municipal reception centre to independent housing, keep in mind that there is a huge housing shortage in the Netherlands and it is very difficult to find your own home. Do not leave the municipal reception centre until you have definitively found something of your own. As soon as you leave the municipal reception centre, your place goes to someone else who needs a place in a reception centre.

If you move to another municipality, register with the new municipality. The municipality will update your details in the Dutch population register (BRP). You also have to inform the municipality if you change your address within the municipality where you already reside.

please note: Your right to living allowance will be terminated altogether if you leave the municipal reception centre without letting the municipality know. See theHandreiking GOO from the Dutch government for more information.

If you don't want to live with your current host family anymore, this is not a problem. It is possible to look for a new host family, or apply for a municipal reception centre. Discuss the possibilities for this with the municipality in which you reside.

Please note: If you are moving from a host family to a municipal reception centre, you are no longer entitled to the extra allowance in the living allowance. In this case you must inform the municipality of a change of address too.