300 temporary residences for international students will be built on the vacant lot near the Berenkuil traffic square in Eindhoven.
That has been agreed on by the municipality, Woonbedrijf and educational institutions. The houses will be built there for fifteen years and can be assembled and dismantled relatively quickly.
International students
The first units will be realised in October. The construction is part of an action plan to accommodate more students. Eindhoven is growing and is also becoming increasingly popular with students. “The need is therefore high. And with this amount of homes, we take the pressure off. It also gives room to build in other places, such as the TU/e campus, and to initiate other measures,” says alderman Yasin Torunoglu.
The houses are specifically intended for international students. And that is a conscious choice. “This group can now breathe again. They therefore no longer use the regular housing market. Now we can continue with measures for more housing for Dutch students in the city,” says Ingrid de Boer, Managing Director of Woonbedrijf.
Caravan camp
The 300 units will be placed near a caravan camp. The residents of the camp are not really enthusiastic about the plan. They are nevertheless open to it, provided that there is a prospect of additional sites for the caravan camp in the near future. “We want it in writing that young people from the camp can also live here. They have been looking for years for their own place to live, here at the camp, but that is not possible so far,” says resident Anita Holzken.
The municipality and Woonbedrijf now want to see if the six young people who are involved can get a place in the new student units. Torunoglu does not want to anticipate whether they will also get a lot at the camp after that.
The plan concerns 300 independent student units of eighteen square meters. These units will have their own kitchen and sanitary facilities. The rental price will be 400 euros per month. De Boer: “Bicycle parking facilities and laundry rooms are communal. We have also thought about sustainability. There will be solar panels on the roofs and the units will be reusable after you have demolished them,”
Landlady
Temporary residential units can be one of the measures to lower the housing shortage. The former asylum seekers’ center at Castilielaan is also being looked into for temporary units. But there are more options. A serious idea seems to be placing students in present households. “We know the idea of a landlady from the past. We thought that there was little interest among students. We have researched this, but the results appeared to be different. Students do seem to be into this,” says De Boer. Torunoglu: “We are going to investigate whether this is possible. There are some bumps, with national and local rules. It would be nice if this works. In this way, in addition to the housing shortage, we can also tackle loneliness among residents.”
Source: Studio040
Translator: Dirk
