Veenhuizen is a village with around 800 inhabitants that was in the municipality (or gemeente) Norg before is was reorganized to be part of a larger collection of municipalities including the lager village of Roden to become the municipality of Noordenveld (since 1998). The larger cities in the area are Groningen, Assen (20 to 30 km), Amsterdam and Bremen, (Germany) (around 200 km). Veenhuizen has an altitude of about 7 metres. What makes Veenhuizen special is that is started out in the early nineteenth century as a reform housing colony for the poor and homeless from the large cities (like Amsterdam and The Hague).