Big parties with loud music and dozens of visitors. It is a hit almost every weekend at the student flat on Vondellaan in Groningen, local residents say. They are furious, but the flat is a godsend for the municipality.
Everyone in the neighborhood knows the flat on the Vondellaan. A few (“I used to be young too”) can handle the festivities just fine. But the vast majority (“this is not normal anymore”) go crazy.
Dozens of residents
The flat is located in the De Wijert district. Until 2016, offices of Addiction Care Northern Netherlands (VNN) were located in the building. When VNN moved, real estate entrepreneurs Hans Keulen and Erwin Vos bought the property. They converted it into a student complex with 96 rooms and since 2018 they have been renting it out to foreign students.
‘Hear it for the first time’
Landlord Erwin Vos is fed up with the complaints. “I’m really hearing this for the first time.” He wants to talk to the perpetrators of the nuisance. “If we can find out who they are.”
He can reassure the neighbors. The international students are there until August. “Then they leave.” The building will be given a different destination, Vos cannot say exactly what will happen.
Housing shortage among international students
How did this happen? In 2018, Groningen is experiencing a serious room shortage. This is especially the case for students from abroad. They don’t know anyone in Groningen who can help them find a room. Moreover, not everyone is waiting for English-speaking roommates. That summer, dozens of international students sleep in tents.
The municipality could therefore use some space and the building on the Vondellaan is empty. There is a problem: no rooms can be rented out in that building. That is in the zoning plan. That is why the municipality, together with entrepreneur Vos, is devising a plan.
‘Short stay’ is allowed. People also rent a room with this construction, but from a legal point of view it is slightly different from an ordinary rental contract. Residents have a lot less rights than ordinary tenants. For example, the landlord may charge as much rent for a room as he or she wants.
“It is not our preference,” says a spokesperson for the municipality. Nevertheless, the municipality will issue a permit for ‘short stay’ in 2018. “The Vondellaan offers a temporary solution for the housing demand of the large and growing group of international students in Groningen.”
‘This is very frustrating’
And those international students like to sit in the garden at the front of the complex when the weather is nice. They cause quite a bit of nuisance there, say local residents. A selection of the reactions:
“There is a party there every weekend,” says Aarnoud Meijer. He lives fifty meters away and often doesn’t sleep a wink on weekends. “Those people think: fuck the neighbors.”
“They can easily sit there until half past two in the morning,” says Greta Bakker-Westrah. “Sometimes they are on the roof shouting or glasses are thrown down.”
“This is very frustrating,” says Nadine van der Smitte. “I have four children, it wakes them up.”
Skirmish
According to local residents, they have often enough tried to call their young neighbors to order. But they have a hard time getting in touch with it.
A few weeks ago, Aarnoud Meijer got so angry that he entered the party and wanted to take the speaker with him. A skirmish ensued. “Some guys started pushing me and a guy in his twenties approached me. He suddenly squeezed my larynx shut. Others intervened just in time.”
He reported the incident to the police. He can report next week.
‘I don’t know anything about that’
A tour of residents of the building yields little. Residents wear earplugs, speak no Dutch and know nothing about a party. The brawl then? “I don’t know anything about that, I wasn’t there.”
One resident would like to give a small tour of the building. As long as he can remain anonymous. On the ground floor is a common room with a kitchenette. Residents can go outside from this room. There are the parties and there Meijer was pinched in the neck.
Josee Troost Joppe lives around the corner from the flat. “This is really not normal. I have often been on vacation in America. All the students are on a campus there. That is wonderful!”