They are more than fed up, the mostly elderly residents of the three flats on Mendelssohnstraat in Tilburg North. So many complaints have been made to landlord WonenBreburg, but the social housing corporation does little to solve the problems, they think. That is why they went to the landlord’s head office with a delegation on Wednesday to offer a black book with complaints.
The complaints range from mold in the bathroom, no tiles in the toilet, windows that cannot be opened and flats that cannot be warmed up in the winter. And that is just a selection from the list of pain points in the Black Book, which was drawn up with the help of the SP.
WonenBreburg director Caroline Timmermans received the book and promised to get well soon. “Although not everything can be arranged immediately,” she adds immediately. “In three years’ time, major maintenance will be carried out on the flats, and then insulation can be made and perhaps the windows that cannot be opened can also be replaced.”
“Breburg has to make sure it’s right. I pay rent anyway!”
But for many residents, who are already elderly, three years is a very long time. Julia van de Klundert is well over eighty and she has been living in the flat for at least 25 years. She can’t sleep with the window open, not even in today’s hot weather. She doesn’t have the strength to slide open the aluminum windows.
It is also easy for burglars to enter on the first floor. “Breburg has to make sure it’s right. I pay rent anyway! I’ve been waiting for those windows for at least 15 years!” Mrs. van de Klundert likes to live in her flat, which is conveniently located opposite the Wagnerplein shopping center. But she does not feel taken seriously by WonenBreburg.
That actually also applies to Annie Danklof. She has been asking for tiles in her toilet for 33 years. But the scraps from the 1970s are still doing well, according to the housing association. Annie is on the top floor, under the flat roof. In winter it is impossible to heat the flat. “If I stick a steak to the wall in the winter, it will keep just as well as in the fridge, it’s that cold,” she says jokingly. But in the meantime she is making herself poor and is sitting on the couch with a very thick blanket. “I say to people who want to come and live here: don’t do it.”
“It’s a matter of making choices, who comes first.”
WonenBreburg now knows that the residents of Mendelssohnstraat take it seriously and says it is working on regaining trust. Caroline Timmermans: “We are in a completely new situation. We have thirty thousand homes that need to be made more sustainable. And there is also major maintenance that is planned. It is a matter of making choices, who comes first. What is apparent here today is that the measure is full for the residents of the Mendelssohn flats and that actions must be taken. We have to work with that.”
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