Marian (63) and Ad (59) from Vlijmen rent a large house from the housing corporation. They would very much like to live smaller, but because Ad earns just too much, they have to rent privately. “That will be too expensive for us. While we really want to give space to a family.”
“It is a very nice house where we now live,” says Marian Verhoeven. “The garden is 18 meters deep, there are three bedrooms and an attic. The school is around the corner, the shops are close by and it is a young neighbourhood. Really, you couldn’t live better.”
“But there are only two of us and it is way too big for us,” Marian says. Marian’s health is also deteriorating. She has COPD. “It is going well at the moment. I now have a lung capacity of 33 percent. With a little help I can still keep up with it all myself. But I actually want to live smaller before it is no longer possible.”
“We would like to give our house to a family.”
Marian and Ad now pay about 760 euros a month rent for the house. Ad now earns more than 45,000 euros gross per year from his job. So if they move house, they are not entitled to social housing. “We would then have to rent something for about 900 euros,” says Marian. “We can afford that now. But when Ad retires, it will be difficult, because our income will suddenly drop. Especially if after a few years rent increases you would have to pay 1,100 euros in rent.”
“The income rules are really very strict.”
The only solution for Marian and Ad is that they continue to live in the big house where they now live. “And that while we really want to give our house to a family and want to live smaller ourselves. But that is not possible now.”
Housing corporation Woonveste, which rents out houses in Vlijmen, also says that Ad and Marian have little choice but to stay where they are until their retirement. “However difficult we find that,” says a spokesperson. “There is a lot of demand for single-family homes. But the income rules are really strict, we can hardly deviate from that.”