Kim (36) has not had her own home for six months. After a series of problems, she ended up on the street and now lives in shelter. The municipality of Tilburg wants Kim and her fellow sufferers to have a house again soon. Because more and more people are becoming homeless, so something has to be done. With an action plan, Tilburg wants to ensure that everyone in the city has their own home. It sounds like music to Kim’s ears: “I don’t belong here, I want to move on, to my future.”
Every afternoon, just before three o’clock, groups of people are waiting in Tilburg’s Wilhelmina Park. These are homeless people who receive a meal from the Broodnoot foundation. Many of them are migrant workers. But Kim is also there.
Kim has not had her own home for six months, after a series of problems: “I had a kind of relationship with my neighbor. He beat me up four times. I asked for help, but I didn’t get it. I ended up at Traverse because I no longer paid the rent and was in debt restructuring.”
“There’s a lot of stuff there, I don’t feel at home there.”
Kim is not homeless, because she has her own studio at Traverse: “I have my own place there, I can sleep there. But I’m not going to sit inside all day, I don’t want that.”
Kim lives in a building with only men and four women: “It really has everything. A lot of strange people, so I don’t feel at home there. Then the fire alarm goes off again at night because someone was smoking a good party joint. Then I wake up in the middle of the night because crazy people live above me and party all night.”
Kim met the Polish Raf (38) at the shelter. They have been hanging out together for five months. Raf came to Tilburg seven years ago for work: “I rented an apartment with my girlfriend and our baby. But because it contained asbestos, we had to get out.”
That was two years ago. His relationship broke down, his ex was taken care of through Traverse and Raf ended up on the street. If it’s not too cold, he sleeps in a squat. He is now in the winter shelter of the municipality of Tilburg, on the NOAD site on the Lovense Kanaaldijk, former football fields where houses are to be built.
“If you do drugs and look like a mummy, they will help you.”
Raf has his reservations about the help he receives: “I am normal and do everything as it should be,” he says, “but they don’t help me. If you do drugs and look like a mummy, they’ll help you and give you money. I don’t know who is responsible for this, but this is a strange situation.”
“There are also many homeless people who do not want to be helped,” Kim adds. According to her, many arrangements are also not clear at all: “My living allowance goes through Traverse. But I can get a meal allowance through the municipality. I only knew that recently. I could have gotten that much earlier.”
Still, Kim hopes that the municipality’s action plan can help her: “So that I will soon have my own house again. Maybe together with Raf. And my two children. I want to move on.”
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