Azra Brouwers from Reusel had to leave her house after her relationship ended. She has now moved from one stretcher to another guest bed three times. A year later, she still doesn’t have her own place. She has now been forced to move to a homeless shelter. “It’s quite okay here and it’s less bad than expected. I’m not among the junkies or anything, but fun is different.”
She has been sleeping on a stretcher in the middle of the kitchen at her father’s house for the past few months. “Easily close to the refrigerator,” she jokes. “But it is anything but ideal. My father only has one bedroom.”
There in the middle of the kitchen she lasted two months. In the months before, she had already had two other addresses where she could not stay forever. The house she rented with her ex cost her 1,300 euros per month. She couldn’t do that on her own. “And staying with friends and family ends at some point,” she explains the decision to go to a homeless shelter.
25-year-old Azra is beyond shame and believes it is important that her story is told. In daily life she works at a supermarket.
“This is pretty much the last place you can go.”
The housing association did not give her priority for social housing. “Especially in cases where there would otherwise be children on the street, urgency is given,” can be read in an email that Azra received from Housing Foundation De Zaligheden. A single person is expected to be able to find a room herself or stay with friends or family.
The municipality of Reusel-De Mierden was also unable to help Azra find a home. In an email from the municipality, Azra is informed of the possibility of contacting the social shelter in Eindhoven. That is the step she took almost three weeks ago: she now sleeps at social shelter Springplank040.
“It is an emergency solution. The first three nights I didn’t sleep well and I cried a lot. This is about the last place you can go.”
“There are people with a drug history or an alcohol problem, but that does not apply to me.”
She sleeps in a room with three other women, and there is a common room with a large kitchen and a living room. She eats with her father, who also looks after her dog. In the evenings she must be in before ten o’clock.
“I’m not among the junkies or anything, that’s not too bad. There are people with a drug history or an alcohol problem, but that does not apply to me. My biggest problem is that I don’t have a house.”
Thijs Eradus, director of Springplank040, sees that the number of people in shelters who mainly have a housing problem is growing. According to him, that number has increased over the past ten years. “It is bizarre that this group comes to us, we did not see them before in the shelter.”
Azra responds weekly to the housing association’s complete housing offering. There is some progress there. A year ago she was still at number 180, the last time she responded she ended up as number 17 on the list of candidates.
“A one-room apartment is enough for me. If I can just lie on the couch with my dog under a blanket, I’m happy.”
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