The sharp rise in the energy price is causing major problems for the tenants in the Koepelgevangenis in Breda. The rent becomes unaffordable for many, while other tenants have to make room for refugees. “It feels unreal, but I’m packing now. I’ll be gone in a month.”
There are now about eighty tenants in the complex. They are there to prevent vacancy in the building and they run various small businesses. Someone makes horse saddles, people work with autists and there is also a boxing gym.
At first the Dutch State owned the complex, but from 1 October it has been owned by project developers. The tenants were told months ago via vacancy manager VPS that an increase in the energy price was imminent. But it now turns out to be higher than expected. Much higher.
“30,000 euros in rent per year due to the gas price, as if I were running a tropical swimming pool.”
Sylvia Thijssen and her partner Jaap rent a large space in the prison complex. She has ‘a studio and gallery in one’. “I was emailed last Friday afternoon. The email stated that the gas price would increase my rent. The increase? About 30,000 euros per year. It’s like running a tropical swimming pool.”
Sylvia has therefore been forced to cancel her contract. “I can’t afford it, this month I already have to cough up 2700 euros extra. We suggested to the manager to take us off the gas. That was possible. Then I would be left out in the cold and still have to pay 15,000 euros extra. That is impossible.”
Sylvia knew there would come a time when she would have to leave. After all, she rents on a vacancy basis. “That has never been a problem. You will receive a smaller rental amount in return. All entrepreneurs here choose that. But then again, such a huge increase in price in such a short period of time, no one here really expected that.”
For Sylvia and her partner Jaap, their studio is their income, but they can ‘play around with their income a bit’. It can always be worse. Another entrepreneur was called the day before yesterday that he must leave on October 5 because refugees are coming into his space. “He has been completely put on the block,” says Sylvia.
“I can’t go back at all.”
That entrepreneur is Bram Walgraeve. Bram rents the gymnasium for his sports company. “The problem with the energy increase is not so much for me. But having to leave or return to the much smaller space I rented before is a disaster for me. I can’t go back at all. I need that gym for my business,” he says.
There are already (Ukrainian) refugees in the Dome, but there will be more. The municipality of Breda announced this this week.
“I don’t mind that,” says Bram. “It’s bad for those people. I knew I had to leave someday. But the way in which, and then also in such a short period of time, is really unprecedented. I was here for eight months. I let kids play sports here. Now I have to leave in five days. I feel abandoned by the community. It’s incomprehensible.”
Sylvia calls the complex the creative breeding ground of Breda. “It’s such a shame that the municipality doesn’t see it that way. We get zero support. We really feel let down.”
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