Now that 140 Ukrainians will live in the Olmenhof for at least 18 months, the municipality of Amstelveen is allocating almost 1.5 million euros to renovate the demolished building. An additional one million euros is added in shelter costs. The current residents have to leave at the beginning of April. They complained for years about overdue maintenance.
A broken heating and elevator, mold spots on the ceiling, junk on every floor and strange figures that hang around in the hallways every day. The former elderly complex the Olmenhof in Amstelveen has seen its best days. Home seekers have been allowed to live there for the past ten years under the Vacancy Act, but have to leave at the beginning of April.
No matter how impoverished the building is and how little the manager Plaza Resident Services has done about their complaints in recent years: the residents still fought to be allowed to stay there.
But the municipality now announces that plans to receive Ukrainian refugees there have been completed. A plan by owner Woonzorg for a new elderly center on the site of the Olmenhof is still in its infancy. In this way, the municipality wants to bridge time without the building being vacant.
Now that Ukrainians are moving into the former elderly complex, the municipality believes that the building still needs some ‘limited’ renovation. A council decision on this subject states that the municipality will make 2,471,000 euros available from the Ukraine Local Working Budget for this purpose. 1,466,000 euros is intended for the renovation of the building.
Money from the government
Inquiries from NH to the municipality reveal that 800,000 euros of this will be used for renovation and 600,000 for furnishing the shelter. “The device can be reused at other locations. We expect that we will be reimbursed for part of these costs by the government,” a spokesperson explains.
In addition, the municipality of Woonzorg provides a reimbursement of 525,000 euros for rental costs and 180,000 euros for water, gas and electricity costs. An external party will manage the location for 18 months for an amount of 300,000 euros.
The spokesperson admits that the condition of the homes in the Olmenhof is currently not optimal. “The building therefore needs a limited renovation, so that basic facilities are in order. The building must be safe and clean to accommodate refugees.”
She points to Woonzorg for the less than optimal living conditions that current residents have had to deal with for years. “The municipality is not the landlord of the building.”