They took a bath and turned the heating up to thirty degrees. A motley crew of various homeless people have been taking advantage of the vacant buildings on Woenselse Markt in recent months. But according to the owners of the plot, it is now definitely finished.
For a week now, you have had a surprising view from the market. As if you are looking at the backdrop of a historical film. At number 60, the greenery has been pruned away and then the long-façade farmhouse from 1900 suddenly appeared. A large garden around it, with garages and the shed. That is what it must have looked like in the past. People stop at the fence to take in the picture.
Danger
In December, the last resident Frits van de Water, a withdrawn man who lived in the farmhouse with his dog, died. Since then, it has been empty. At least, that is what the family thought. However, the empty buildings exerted a great attraction on all kinds of different homeless people in the city. They broke the place open and made themselves comfortable. The owners initially had to get them out again ‘at the risk of their own lives’.
Eastern Europeans, Poles, alleged Ukrainians “and a junkie lady from the Netherlands who apologised very politely. We chased away dozens of people”, the family’s spokeswoman says. Her husband is one of the 20 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren Van de Water who inherited the farm. He is charged with the execution of the estate, and that has been a big job so far.
A phone call from Enexis led to the discovery of the homeless residents. The company called to ask how an empty building could consume 850 cubic metres of gas in two months. “Those people had turned the heating up to thirty and even took baths there”.
The whole thing was boarded up, the local police officer came to help and the police patrolled the area regularly, but that could not prevent the homeless from moving into the buildings again and again. Since the pruning last week, the buildings have been sealed with metal and that will put an end to the illegal occupation, the family hopes.
To their surprise, they heard a rumor in the neighbourhood that they would ask €10,000,000 for the site. “No idea where that came from”. The judge will determine the price of the land, only then will negotiations with the municipality about the sale begin.
Plans
In the meantime, entrepreneurs are already making plans for the location, in the hope that the municipality will join in once the sale has been concluded. Rob van der Ploeg, who was also at the cradle of the renovated Sectie C business park: “I can’t say anything concrete about it yet. But we are looking at how we can ‘lift’ this area, as it were, together with Kruisstraat and Woenselse Markt business association”.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
