A densely vegetated garden of a rental house in Amstelveen that has been completely emptied from one day to the next. A photo of this caused a lot of commotion on social media this weekend. The responsible housing association, Eigen Haard, comes today with a declaration and apologies.
It all started with an indignant tweet from the Amstelveense Jeltje van Houten. “What a shock at Eigen Haard and the municipality of Amstelveen,” she wrote. “Today this whole garden has been cleared out.” According to Jeltje, the previous residents have taken care of the greenery in the garden for decades. A poster on the window of the house states that the garden and house are being refurbished for the new tenants. It generated a storm of reactions.
The fact that housing construction turned the garden from a green oasis into a heap of earth irritated many people, because they think it is a shame. “I understand that a house must be delivered empty, but a garden. What a sin,” Natasja responds to the Tweet, for example. “Why not discuss with the new tenants whether they prefer the beautiful green garden to this sand heap?”, Elisa wonders.
The constant appeal to leave your garden green and not to lay down too many tiles only adds to the outrage. “In 2022!? A drama for urban nature, biodiversity, climate, sewer, etc. I don’t understand this,” writes Mirjam.
As much greenery as possible in the gardens is a natural way to keep cities cool and this prevents flooding. It is also good for biodiversity. The municipality of Amstelveen even participates in the NK Tegelwippen, where garden tiles are collected for free if green is returned. Also is subsidy released for residents with an idea for more greenery in the city.
Text continues below photo.
Wrong, thanks
Many Twitter users are afraid that clearing the garden before the new tenants move into a home is policy, but Eigen Haard says in a statement today that this is not the case. According to the housing association, this is an error.
“We wanted to remove a number of things from the garden because they were unsafe. In addition, we had to tile the garden path again. The fact that the rest of the garden was also emptied was not necessary and we regret that,” is their statement.
Learned from fuss
According to Eigen Haard, if a resident moves out, a supervisor will come by to inspect the house and garden before it is rented out again. “We have criteria for what a garden should look like before we rent it out again. The garden must not be completely overgrown. Dead plants and shrubs must be removed and there must be no unsafe situations,” the housing association explains.
An Amstelveen is not satisfied with that explanation. In a tweet she wrote that Eigen Haard’s ‘standing policy’ concerns, because ‘the gardens in Bankras have been hazing with every house change in recent years’.
Text continues below tweet.
Eigen Haard says that he has learned from the situation and the fuss. “We are taking a critical look at our own policy to see where we can improve it,” the organization concludes.