Despite criticism from experts, Aa and Hunze believe that flex homes can still be a solution for people who need a home quickly. The municipality wants to build 35.
This is what spokesperson Willard Bouwmeester of Aa and Hunze said. The municipality is still in consultation with housing associations about the location and the exact details.
Many municipalities in Drenthe have plans to build flex homes. These are houses that are built for ten to fifteen years. They are intended for very diverse groups: from people who have to leave their home after a divorce and young people who want to leave their parental home, to refugees with a residence permit and people who want to live independently again after admission to an institution.
Factory
The municipality of Aa en Hunze expects these flexible homes to be built faster than regular homes. Now that many people are in a pinch due to a lack of housing, this is an important fact. “The buildings are realized in a factory,” says Bouwmeester. “This allows you to do the construction parallel to the preparation time for construction.”
In this paper, however, experts pointed out that the preparation time is also quite long. Finding a suitable location is complicated, consultation with local residents takes time and so on. In addition, construction would in many cases also be expensive, because the homes are quickly depreciated. The question then arises whether governments and housing associations would not be better off investing these efforts in permanent homes.
Bouwmeester points out the flexible options. “After ten years at one location, you can, for example, permanently build these houses in a different place, which is not yet available.”