The Knarrenhof in Paterswolde seems to be off the track. A narrow majority of Tynaarlo’s municipal council prefers social housing on the site of the Bladergroenschool in the village.
The city council did not reach a decision last night. After more than three hours of meetings about the Knarrenhof, Mayor Marcel Thijsen decided to put the subject back on the agenda for the next council meeting in fourteen days.
The initiative group Hof van Paterswolde has been working for three years on the realization of a knarrenhof, with about thirty rental and owner-occupied homes for the elderly at the location of the Bladergroenschool. There is currently a temporary asylum seekers’ center for about 150 Afghan refugees.
Initially, the municipality of Tynaarlo was enthusiastic about the arrival of the Knarrenhof at this location, but retraced its steps. The mayor and aldermen later opted for social housing by the Stichting Eelder Woningbouw, because of the great shortage of these houses. According to the council, the demand for social rental homes has increased sharply since 2021, especially in Eelde-Paterswolde.
Where is your support?
Jan Slangen of the initiative group Hof van Paterswolde feels that the municipality has put him in his shirt, he said during the city council on Tuesday evening. “The mayor said at the opening of the azc in the Bladergroenschool that the shovel for the knarrenhof could go into the ground in June 2023. Where is your support for our plan now?”
According to Slangen, there are 394 people interested in the plan in Eelde. About thirty were sitting in the public gallery in the council chamber on Tuesday evening. ,, They are owners of large single-family homes in the region looking for a smaller home with aftercare. They look at each other. Their homes become available to others.”
Top priority
Chairman Frans Verhoeven of the tenants’ association Eelde-Paterswolde expressed a different view. According to him, building social rental housing is a top priority. “In Eelde there are 1600 and in the municipality of Tynaarlo 3400 home seekers.” Stichting Eelder Woningbouw has built few social homes in the village in recent years. According to Verhoeven, the corporation can build 53 rental homes on the Bladergroenterrein and the former school De Kooi in Eelde.
In the Groningen-Assen region, after Noordenveld, the waiting time for a social rental home is greatest in the municipality of Tynaarlo. The registration period for a social rental home in Eelde-Paterswolde has increased from three years in 2018 to 7.2 years in 2022, according to the council.
A motion by the CDA, supported by three other political groups, to realize the Knarrenhof on the Bladergroenschoolterrein after all, did not make it. Alderman Jurryt Vellinga says he is looking at alternative locations for such a facility.
More success
Elsewhere in Drenthe, plans for a knarrenhof are more successful. In Emmen, the first residents moved into their new home in the elderly housing form this week. In Peize, the city council approved the arrival of the senior court last month and there are also plans for this residential facility in Meppel.