The majority of the crowd, dressed in the parking lot of a former tractor showroom in Bakkum, looks expectantly at the driveway where every moment Minister Mona Keijzer, (Public Housing (BBB), can appear for a working visit. “Would she come?” Sounds under the dozens of doses. to be ashamed ‘.
Only Hanneke Klinkert (77), a little at the back, is a bit distracted. “Hey hello, Whalid! Whalid, this is my grandson.” Smile: “I give Whalid Dutch lessons.” “And hey, Peter, I hadn’t seen you yet boy!” “Paulien!” Swing to the distance. Also an old colleague, she nods. From the Bonhoeffercollege, where she worked as a Dutch teacher forty years. She and her husband even moved to Bakkum, from Amsterdam. Jelle Jan Klinkert (78): “We live here around the corner.”
And never regrets. But they are now ashamed. For their municipality, Castricum. Because this former tractor showroom – John Deere is still on the facade – has in a short time grown into a national symbol of ‘the sober flow location’ that the cabinet aims to introduce nationally as a housing for status holders.
Converted showroom
In a bill of Mona Keijzer, status holders would no longer be given priority over social rental homes. They should be eligible for an ‘intermediate location’ to relieve the overcrowded asylum seekers’ centers. And in 2019, Castricum was already one of the first municipalities to have abolished the priority rule for status holders and had set up such a intermediate provision. Since June 2024. Twenty white container houses in this converted showroom right next to a gas station. Residential units with a width of 2.20 meters in echoing halls with a single sofa in the corner. Three hobs, three refrigerators, one magneton. Six showers. A single toilet. Little daylight. The atmosphere of anti -squat. And all about thatched villas with riding lanes of white pebble.
“Keij-Zer becomes WE-ZER,” now it sounds from the crowd. ‘Look well – how it should not be’
The housing in Castricum has led to quite a few riots in recent months. A resigned alderman (GroenLinks) and an alderman (VVD) who has been collected from the status holder file since this week. And now Mona Keijzer comes to visit. A working visit, to see, according to the official reading, how in Castricum the housing for status holders “in relation to the bill” is arranged.
“Shameing,” says Jelle Jan Klinkert. “Such a rich congregation. And then …” Hanneke Klinkert: “We can really do this better.”
Deterrence
Such a sober housing was conceived from “the primitive idea of deterrence,” says Jelle Jan Klinkert. “While these are Dutch people like you and me. They want to live with their lives.” “And you don’t want to know how hard they are working on it,” says Hanneke Klinkert. “Die there”-pointing to a boy at the door with a bunch of yellow tulips in his hand, for the minister-“is called Osama. O-Sama. Studies at the VU.”
Read also
Plan Keijzer will only increase the housing market problems according to municipalities
Enough residents of Castricum who disagree with the sober facility. They now also know quite a few status holders. Like the sexton of the church, who is Syrian. Klinkert: “He has been cleaning for years.” And already ten years ago in the bookstore in the Center for refugees, coffee and tea donated. You could become language buddies and Hanneke Klinkert gives their Dutch lessons. Now to two Syrians and two Ukrainians, and the latter live in a former Rabobank Cerderop. “That looks much better.”
So when this former tractor showroom was set up as a residential place in June last year, the Klinkerts were also countering. Their son-in-law started a ‘Neighborhood Assistance Status holders’ app in which around 35 local residents are now participating. They gave furniture, but the containers turned out to be so small “that nothing fits in!” And also legal help, because because of the living conditions, the status holders have engaged a lawyer. “Even an old student of mine,” says Hanneke Klinkert smiling. “And hey, isn’t that Thomas?” Thomas Möhlmann, the famous poet, who also sat on the Bonhoeffercollege.
The poet holds a plate up with ‘Keijzer becomes wiser’ and instructs in the crowd. “Keij-Zer becomes WE-ZER” is now sounding from the crowd. “Look well – how it should not be done.” And while in the distance the crowd socks around a bright orange pantsuit, Hanneke Klinkert sings along. Ever louder.
“Keij-Zer is we-zer.
“Look well.
“How to do it.”