Angelica Farla (34) has been in conflict with the housing association for six years because her house on Kerkstraat is full of damp and mold. Ventilating and heating does not help. “My children are sick all the time. This is really debilitating. I wonder whether they at Alwel realize what this is doing to us and whether they are not yet ashamed of what is going on here,” she says.
Tears well up in her eyes when the Etten-Leurse discovers during this interview that a mattress in her bedroom is also covered in mold. “This is our fault,” she points out. “Because I wouldn’t heat enough, ventilate enough and keep my house tidy. I’m really exhausted,” sighs the mother of two daughters (10 and 12).
“Every four days I have to brush away the mold in my window frame.”
Her eldest daughter is currently not sleeping at home. “She is recovering with her father, because that is impossible here. She sleeps here in the cold, under about seven blankets because I always have the ventilation grille open for ventilation. As a mother, it sometimes really feels like I am failing. ” she says resignedly.
“Of course I first started sending letters and entering into discussions with Alwel. But they promise all kinds of things, but often cannot keep them.” External agencies, hired by the housing association, have found that the house is full of ‘rising damp’, she says. “Upstairs and downstairs we suffer from moisture and mold formation. Every four days I have to clean away the mold in my window frame.”
“I was vindicated and since 2022 I have paid 60 percent less rent.”
“It has been a big contingency plan from the start. The first house I lived in, next door, was really a ruin. I was fobbed off with ‘You have to do a lot yourself, but yes, you have your head and your body’,” says she is disgusted.
In 2021, shortly after Angelica told her story to BNDeStem, she was told that she could move to a neighboring house. “But then the story started all over again and I contacted the rent committee. I was right and since 2022 I have paid 60 percent less rent.”
Double glazing has also been installed, the exterior facades have been impregnated and the joints have been redone. This was not enough. “The company that was working here at the time also said: ‘If we are here anyway, wouldn’t we better insulate everything?'” According to Angelica, the insulation was initially promised, but later stopped by Alwel.
“The whole street is sending us from pillar to post.”
Angelica is not the only one in Kerkstraat who suffers from moisture and mold problems. “There is something wrong with the first seven houses,” she says. For example, her neighbor Nancy Boere (41) shows how the plasterwork comes off her walls and the wallpaper comes loose due to all the moisture. “And down there, near the skirting boards, you see a green haze: mold.”
“I am very disappointed in Alwel,” says Lorenzo Donders. He lives with his partner Patrick in Angelica’s former house. He had lived there for barely ten months, but soon realized that ‘I would not live here for the rest of my life’. When Lorenzo wanted to lay a new floor, it turned out that the old floor was completely wet from moisture. “Everything behind the wallpaper is full of mold and I recently discovered a huge spot under my couch. We are being sent from pillar to post throughout the street.”
Housing association Alwel says in a response that they find it a very annoying situation. “We really want to solve it with everyone,” said Corina Pistorius, branch manager at Alwel Etten-Leur. “But first I want to talk to these people.” She cannot say what solutions will be discussed and over what period of time. “But it’s really not a money issue.” The municipality of Etten-Leur has stated that it has every confidence that the Alwel housing association will find a suitable solution.
