Assen wants to build 160 flexible homes on the Groene Dijk business park, opposite the fire station. The temporary houses are intended for young people, status holders and so-called emergency seekers, such as recently divorced men and women.
The municipality of Assen is working closely with housing corporation Actium to realize the flex homes. Flexible homes are temporary rental homes in the social sector, which are built for a period of ten to fifteen years. “These are different types of homes, from studios to two-room apartments and from low-rise to stacked buildings,” says director Rein Zwart of Actium.
Conditions
Assen has been looking for a suitable place for flexible housing for some time, says alderman Cor Staal. “We set conditions. The location must be easily accessible, infrastructure such as sewerage and utilities must be present and the location must not be too far from the centre. That’s how we ended up at the Groene Dijk. There is a bus line near the location, the infrastructure has been built, the HVA hockey field is next to it and the FC Assen sports field is within walking distance. It is a five minute bike ride from the city centre. It is a business park for living and working, but lot allocation is not going very fast here. Now that we want to build flex homes there, we are taking the plots off the market.”
Waiting period six years
By placing 150 to 160 flexible homes, the municipality and the housing corporation hope to relieve the pressure on the housing market in the Drenthe capital. “In Assen and the surrounding area, the average waiting time for a rented house in the social sector is six years. That is quite a long time by Northern standards,” says Zwart. Are 160 homes not a drop in the ocean then? ,,No, it is several drops in the ocean. The waiting time is going down and these are not the only rental properties we are going to build in Assen. We want to build 500 in different places in the city.”
Alderman Staal hopes that the flex homes will be there by the middle of next year. “The city council has yet to make a decision and we still have to sit down with the government to finalize the financing.” Zwart adds: “Placing a flexible home costs about 1.5 tons, so do the math if you want to build 160.” Then you end up with 24 million euros. “That is not possible for us, but we are participating because there is such a great shortage of this type of housing.” According to him, the rental price of a flexible home will be around 500 euros.
The advantage of flexible homes is that they can be erected quickly. They are built in the factory and, in the case of stacked construction, simply assembled on site. Some construction companies have them in stock.
Research in all municipalities
Assen is not the only Drenthe municipality that wants to build flexible homes. For example, Aa and Hunze want to build 35, Coevorden 30 and Hoogeveen is looking at whether flexible homes can be built in Bentinckspark-Noord. Westerveld also has concrete plans for these homes in Havelte. Almost every other municipality in Drenthe is investigating the possibilities for temporary houses. In Midden-Drenthe, plans for flex homes in Smilde were scrapped and residents in Beilen are protesting against the arrival of the temporary homes on Eursingerweg.
Walk-in evening
Residents living near the Groene Dijk were personally informed about the plans on Wednesday evening. It concerns houseboat residents in the Noord-Willemskanaal and residents of company homes. On 13 September there will be a walk-in meeting about the plans in MFA Kloosterveste.