The Woningwet of 1901 obliged larger municipalities to draw up expansion plans, set minimum standards for dwellings and empowered authorities to condemn slum housing. Crucially it allowed approved non-profit housing associations to obtain government loans, creating the financial basis for Dutch social housing. The act responded to overcrowding and high urban mortality documented in the late nineteenth century. It was accompanied by a Health Act the same year.
It established the legal and financial framework for municipal planning and social housing that has shaped Dutch cities for over a century.
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