The number of homeless people in Eindhoven has been increasing for several years. More and more people with a care indication for sheltered housing are ending up in homeless shelters, a part of the care in which many commercial companies are active. “Difficult clients are shown the door.”
According to Studio040’s research, this results in many homeless people missing out on care that they do need.
Sheltered housing
Sheltered housing is a form of care for people with a mild intellectual disability or other psychological problems who are independent enough to live and work independently to some extent.
As the central municipality in the region, Eindhoven has concluded agreements with 23 companies and small businesses that offer this form of care. The municipality also spends over thirty million euros annually on people with a WMO indication (Social Support Act). Last year, 2,100 people in the region had such an indication, half of whom were entitled to care in kind, which includes sheltered housing.
At the homeless shelter of Sprinkplank040, they regularly come across people with a WMO indication for sheltered housing. People with autism or a mild intellectual disability, who do not meet the requirements that small care entrepreneurs, focused on a specific target group, often set for clients.
Selecting
One of those tricks seems to be selecting ‘easy’ patients. For example, Studio040 has seen extensive documents from several small companies about what clients should and should not meet. Something that GGzE also recognises.
“GGzE is the largest provider, but there are also smaller providers that offer more specific care,” a source from the company tells Studio040. “There are also companies that focus exclusively on autism, for example. We often have the more complex and complicated clients with us. Smaller organisations make it easier to say ‘We do not take them into care’ because they offer a particular service. That also happens nationwide; there are certainly cherry pickers among them.” 3200 nights
Springplank040 acknowledges that there are problems with companies that offer sheltered housing. The institution reports that it took in 3,200 nights last year for someone who is entitled to sheltered housing but is still waiting for placement. This means that approximately 10 per cent of the shelter places that Springplank has are available to people who do not receive the care they need.
“And those people are not in the right place here,” says Springplank director Thijs Eradus. “We have security guards walking around to keep order, but we do not have any care professionals in-house. If someone has mental problems or a mild intellectual disability, we really cannot help them, but they do end up with us.”
Almost homeless
One of the people who seems to be able to register with the homeless shelter in the long term is Selin*. She suffers from severe panic and anxiety attacks, for which she previously indicated the Long-Term Care Act, which was later adjusted to a WMO indication for sheltered housing. She did this via Futuris Zorg & Werk, but Selin’s problems only got worse due to the company’s actions, she tells Studio040. (*Name has been changed for privacy reasons)
“I came to live in a house on Strijp-S, but there I was bothered by two downstairs neighbours who Futuris also housed. There was often loud music at night or early in the morning, and they smoked a lot of weed, which meant that I was often exposed to the smell of weed. For someone with my diagnosis, that is very problematic.”
But ringing the doorbell for the problems at Futuris was of little use. “I was mainly told to call the police. At one point, I did that too, but it didn’t change the situation. If the music was turned off just in time, or not loud enough to officially label it as a nuisance, they can’t help you either, but I was bothered by it.”
Selin’s problems became worse because of the nuisance, she says: “I walk around with a blocked nose all the time, I regularly have sweat attacks, I get bruises out of nowhere, and my cholesterol has shot up, that’s all a reaction to the stress.”
Debt
Selin is also not happy with the further assistance provided by Futuris. “They don’t add anything. They come here once a week for an hour, but I don’t get any help. When I came here, I had no income and had to live on 50 euros a week. I didn’t know that I was entitled to special assistance to buy furniture and dinner. You would expect a supervisor to help you, but that didn’t happen. Since I’ve been at Futuris, I’ve gotten into debt for the first time.”
The Selin case confirms the story that sheltered housing companies are only too happy to part with ‘difficult’ cases. Due to the breach of trust that arose from the ongoing bickering, Selin’s sheltered housing trajectory was stopped. Futuris did not want to extend Selin’s WMO indication, she says, which is confirmed by Alex Paauw, a committee member of the SP Eindhoven, who came into contact with her after she had placed an appeal on Facebook for a new home.
Because her trajectory was stopped, Selin had to leave the home she had received through Futuris – the company rents it from Woonbedrijf. For a long time, it seemed as if she would end up on the street. The only reason that this did not happen is that Selin herself contacted the municipality, which unexpectedly extended her WMO indication, allowing her to stay with Futuris after all. For Selin, it is an undesirable situation because she does not trust the company, but her other option is homelessness, she says.
Urgency
She cannot expect any help from a housing corporation either. She applied for urgency, but it was rejected by the urgency committee early last year. “The committee thinks that Futuris Zorg & Werk should ensure that the nuisance stops and that you receive sufficient guidance,” can be read in the rejection letter.
“Your situation would have deteriorated, which would mean that independent living would not be an option at this time.” If Selin had been properly guided and had completed her trajectory, she would have been entitled to move to social housing.
Futuris Zorg en Werk responded by stating that the company is responsible for guidance in various areas of life, including finances. The company says it does not recognise itself in the situation described. Futuris cannot comment on Selin’s specific case.
Source: Studio040
Translated by Ayşenur Kuran
