A spacious room for little money plus ten hours of volunteer work a month. Forty students currently live in the vacant Carolushuis on the Bosdrift according to that formula. Local residents are happy with it: “They connect the neighborhood, I suddenly get to know my neighbors here.”
Scones, tomcats, cake: today an extensive – and free – high tea is on the program. “We have everything, savory and sweet,” says student Anne Vreugdenhil. Behind her people trickle in, young and old. Together with her fellow students, she has done extensive baking and flyering in the neighbourhood. “Local residents are also allowed to bring something tasty, but that is not necessary at all.”
Anne studies creative therapy in Amersfoort. She would prefer to have rooms in Utrecht, but that turned out to be impossible. “Then you pay 500 euros for six square meters.” She heard about the organization Connect Generations, which organizes student housing in the Carolushuis, among others. “They link students to a living space in a nursing home. That’s how I ended up here,” says Anne.
Anti-cracking
The concept normally works as follows: you rent a room for a few hundred euros in or at a care home and work as a volunteer with the elderly for thirty hours a month. In Hilversum it is slightly different. The students live here anti-squat. “Because the nursing home is empty due to demolition plans, we do volunteer work for the neighborhood for ten hours a month,” says Anne.
And that is much appreciated. “Super fun, they provide connections in the neighborhood,” says visitor Barto Visser. “I meet people I wouldn’t see otherwise. I actually get to know my neighbors here.” Local resident Wil Struijs is also enthusiastic. “It’s very nice, this. I’ve been retired for a while and I really enjoy being here with other ages. That’s good for a person.”
Text continues below video.
Wil: “Suddenly I have conversations with students again, that keeps me young!” – NH News
Anne’s room is twenty square meters in size. “I pay 265 euros per month for that,” she says. She has her own toilet, bathroom and kitchen and shares a living room with several others. “That’s very pleasant,” says fellow student Mirna Abbekerk. She studies speech therapy in Utrecht. “Every Thursday we have home evenings, then we come together in one of the living rooms.”
Mirna only came to live in the Carolushuis a month ago. “I like that very much. It’s great fun with the other students, but I think it’s especially special that we mean something to someone else with these activities,” says Mirna.
Bouncy castle and chocolate milk
Because the forty anti-squat students organize a lot for the neighbourhood. “We had a children’s party with bouncy castles and spiders, every last Wednesday of the month there is coffee afternoon, now the high tea”, Anne sums up. They also put notes in the mailbox to offer all kinds of help to local residents. “And soon there will be a children’s bingo and we want to hand out chocolate milk in the neighborhood,” says Anne.
It is well known that the housing shortage among students is high in the Netherlands. In the video below Mirna and Anne tell us how the situation is with them. The students in the Carolushuis study in all kinds of different places in the country. “Even in Zwolle and Leiden”, emphasizes Anne.
Anne: “Now I have a large room for little money, which is nice.” – NH News
Anne would certainly recommend this housing construction to other students looking for housing. “It is great fun to organize all these activities, but especially the connection with other students and with the neighborhood is special.”
Officially, the students can continue to live at the Bosdrift until the end of December, but they themselves expect that this could take some time.
Connect Generations offers rooms throughout the Netherlands. In addition to Hilversum, there are currently also rooms available in Bodegraven, Enschede, Heemstede and Nijmegen.