‘I have my own sauna’, jokes resident Etienne Goudriaan (32) of the temporary residential complex Place2BU in Utrecht. Even in the morning the temperature in his living unit of 21 square meters approaches 30 degrees Celsius, on hot days his thermometer can touch 40. The complex is struggling with a heat problem, housing corporation Mitros acknowledges. This is an issue in more basic flexible housing, and becomes acute in hot summers like this one.
Goudriaan lives in one of the 490 residential containers stacked in five floors: the contours of gabled roofs placed on the residential blocks are visible from afar on the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal, between the rising new construction of Leidsche Rijn. Since 2017, status holders and people in need of care have been living in the complex together with young people between the ages of 23 and 35, which may be there for at least twelve years.
‘It’s nice living here’, says Goudriaan, who has just taken part in a communal breakfast in the communal area of the complex. He acquired his housing unit when he was almost graduating, and he has been working for several years now. In the summer months this is sometimes ‘a big challenge’, he says. The lack of sleep in the warm months does not help his concentration. ‘And working from home during the lockdowns in this studio was not really a success either.’
Demanders and carriers
At the time, it was still a novelty for a municipality to accommodate different target groups together in temporary housing blocks, but now such flexible housing projects – most of them somewhat smaller than this one – have become commonplace. More and more municipalities are setting up them to comply with the government’s order to accommodate their share of refugees. And also to offer temporary housing to, for example, young people, people in divorce and other groups with a tight budget who need housing quickly. In policy language it is then said that ‘demanders’ – people who need some extra care – live together with ‘carriers’ – students and starters, for example, who have little choice in the tight housing market.
However lucky many residents in Place2BU are that they have a roof over their heads within cycling distance of the center of Utrecht, the project also makes it clear that municipalities must pay attention to housing conditions in flexible housing projects. In a flexible housing project in Gouda with sixty homes, completed this year, the new residents also struggle with excessive heat. According to the spokesperson for the Mozaïek Wonen housing association, this is not due to the quality of the homes, which she believes meets all the rules. The corporation has meanwhile hung up sun screens and applied foil to the windows.
After complaints from the residents, Mitros has also made some adjustments to Place2BU: air conditioning has been installed in the long corridors and the ventilation has been improved. The housing association offered residents sun protection foil for their windows on the sunny side. But according to Goudriaan, that is not enough. He went to the rent committee to enforce more measures, such as the construction of a green roof – in vain.
Lessons learned
It is still unbearable here on hot days, says a resident in his twenties who hastily leaves the site with a backpack on: he goes to his mother for a few days to sleep. A 26-year-old resident survives in the complex with the help of a second-hand air conditioner. She also believes that Mitros should do more about the heat problem.
Mitros herself says that she has learned lessons from the experiences: according to the spokesperson, the new flexible housing plans of the corporation have a much higher standard. In many of the current flexible housing projects of housing associations, the quality of living is hardly inferior to that of permanent housing, confirms director Wim Reedijk of the expertise center Flexwonen. ‘I see wonderful examples of sustainable prefab homes that can last for decades in multiple locations.’
But Reedijk still sees poorer quality plans. Temporary housing only has to comply with the temporary construction building decree, which is less strict. And then it can get too hot, or, for example, too humid, cold or noisy. Especially now that the pressure on the kettle is so high to quickly add living space, Reedijk fears that there are also municipalities that will ‘play panic football’, by having to settle for a lower standard in the haste – including, for example, the infamous residential container with only one narrow side a window opening.
Under the air conditioning in the hallway
In a residential unit diagonally below Goudriaan’s, resident Selvan (30) has sweat on his forehead. Selvan is one of the residents who did not want sun protection foil on his windows. ‘Then I see less of what it’s like outside,’ he explains. ‘In the winter it’s too dark, then I get gloomy.’ When he has showered, he immediately goes to the hallway to stand under the air conditioning for a while. “Otherwise I’ll be sweaty again.”
Selvan, of Iraqi descent, was homeless for a while before he was given this accommodation. It is better than nothing, he thinks, and he is happy with the inhabitants of African, Moroccan, Syrian, Afghan and Dutch descent, among others. But he sees the residents who can move as quickly as possible.
Selvan would also rather live in a ‘real’ permanent house. Like that, for example, he says, pointing to the new building emerging in front of his window. more spacious. Less noisy. With space for your own washing machine, so that you no longer have to rely on a communal laundry room. Then he quickly hurries back outside in his slippers. It is less hot there than inside.
Commitment: The cabinet asked municipalities to accommodate 7,500 status holders before mid-August in order to relieve the pressure on asylum reception, partly in flexible housing or in temporary housing in converted offices. The municipalities have not yet succeeded in this. The municipalities will also not succeed in adding the 15,000 flexible housing units requested by housing minister Hugo de Jonge each year. Nevertheless, the number of flexible housing in the Netherlands is growing steadily, according to the Flexwonen expertise centre, which has been arguing for a ‘flexible shell’ around the housing market for years. Municipalities would like it very much, but are discovering that its realization will cost more time, money and energy than expected: partly due to procedures, objections from local residents and the connection to utilities.