Drops on the ceiling, stucco that spontaneously falls from the wall and plenty of mold. For Nicole van der Kooij in Breda Princenhage, despair is near. It has been leaking in her home and that of her upstairs neighbor for five years. All the while they try to persuade housing association Alwel to solve it. “But until now it just sticks to plasters,” says Nicole.
In the storage room, the engorged concrete floor is loose around the doorposts. In the living room the curtain rails with screws and plugs have fallen out of the ceiling. Everything is soaked with moisture.
The heavy rain showers of the past few days also leave fresh traces. “The laminate now floats on a layer of water at my Somali neighbors upstairs. They don’t speak Dutch very well and certainly don’t know how to get through to Alwel,” says Nicole.
“I have been asking the housing association for attention about the leaks for five years. After the showers of last weekend I was on hold twice for half an hour. Then the connection was broken. And that is not the first time.” Meanwhile, Nicole moves her things to places where the ceiling won’t leak.
The latest leak – in the storage room next to the front door – has been haunting her since June. “Employees of the housing association came to have a look a few times, but did nothing about it. And now I have to wait for the foreman, but he is on vacation until October 4th.”
There is a humidity meter in the living room. It indicates a value of 60 percent. “That’s because I have now opened everything up to air, but this summer the humidity here in the house rose to 80 percent and that is really not pleasant.”
Nicole lives with her two assistance dogs. Tim, the oldest is 12 years old and has cancer. Her other labrador Bram is only a year old and is being groomed by Nicole and Tim together to take over the task in case disaster strikes. “Because of the moisture in the house, Bram often has inflamed eyes. When we were away a few days ago, the inflammation disappeared, so it really has to do with the poor air quality in the house”, Nicole sighs.
Nicole hopes that because of all the media attention, Alwel will now take action. She also sees another solution: “Let people from Alwel just come and live here for a week. Let’s see how much they enjoy it in the middle of the night, when it starts to rain, to lug towels around to prevent the floor and all things go further.”
Housing association Alwel in Breda was unable to respond substantively to Nicole’s complaints on Monday afternoon.