The Netherlands is dealing with a severe housing crisis due to factors like population growth and a shortage of affordable homes. This has led to soaring housing prices impacting all citizens. Particularly impacted by the consequences of ineffective policies for housing provision are status holders. Due to lack of homes made available for this target group the throughput of refugees with a temporary residency permit out of reception centres stagnates, increasing the pressure on these already overcrowded settlements.
Urgent action is needed, including comprehensive housing policies and increased investment in affordable housing. Therefore the government has introduced flexible housing as a promising solution. These are modular houses placed on temporary plots otherwise unsuitable for permanent housing.
However, studies show that in order to integrate into society, factors such as housing stability, access to social network and future perspective play an important role. This is seemingly difficult to reconcile with the temporary character of flex homes.
This study examines strategies for stakeholders to develop flex homes in a manner that enhances the capabilities of status holders to integrate. By identifying approaches and practices that can optimize partnerships between key stakeholders from both the social and spatial realm and ways to encourage these partnerships. This can be done with financial arrangements such as subsidies. Through a comprehensive literature review, interviews with experts and a case study of three flex housing projects, the partnerships, financial arrangements and capabilities for integration are investigated.
Findings show that early engagement of key stakeholders, interdisciplinary partnerships and financial arrangements that hold these interdisciplinary collaborations as a condition can have a positive impact on the contributing factors of integration for status holders. Primarily because this allows the social partners to exchange their knowledge on social integration at an early stage in the development process, influencing both the design as the long term social management approaches.
This study suggests that the integration capabilities of status holders should be considered at an early stage in the development process. Requiring a contribution from key stakeholders from both the social domain, as the spatial domain, and stimulating mechanisms from the government.

Keywords:
flex housing, integration, status holders, partnership models, financial arrangements