The two foreign students Adèle and Noam slept for a month in a tent in the backyard of a house. After many bad nights and a call on several media channels, they received many messages in which places to sleep were offered. Fortunately, just before the period of cold nights, they found an anti-squat home themselves.
With a little effort Noam opens the door of the house. “Welcome to our new home. We are very happy with it. Finally sleeping in a good bed with a roof over your head. I notice that I have much more energy again and that is very nice, especially at school.”
Adèle from France and Noam from the US now live in their new home for a few days. The students received a lot of stuff from friends, family, and also from strangers who had heard their story. “It’s still a bit of a mess. We haven’t had time to give it all a place yet, but we are very happy with it.”
Adèle often thinks back to the nights in the tent and realizes all too well how nice it is that Noam and she now have a roof over their heads. “We didn’t sleep much. The tent was broken and a lot of wind came in. Now that we are in this house, we realize again how nice this is.”
Yet the house is not very warm, nor is it really safe. The ladies sleep with extra blankets over them and earlier this week Noam discovered that a burglar had entered. Luckily they didn’t miss anything. “We need quite a lot of money to secure and heat the house, and we don’t have that. But we have blankets, stuff and two more students are coming to live with us. This makes it safer and more enjoyable.”
In the living room there are two sofas, a cupboard and a table made of a door. They have big plans to turn it into a beautiful home, but are unsure whether they will carry it out. After all, their lease can be terminated at any time, says Noam. “It is an anti-squat home, so we don’t know how long we can stay. That can be a year and a half, but also a month.”
According to the zoning plan, a new police station is to be built on this site. However, the ladies find this strange in a time of housing shortages. “It would be a real shame if this is demolished. This is certainly a great place for us as students. If buildings like these aren’t torn down, students won’t have to sleep in a tent or on a park bench.”
Whatever happens, at least the students don’t want to go back to their tent. It is still in the same place by the way. “Due to the chaos of the move, it has not yet been cleaned up. I think we’ll have a nice ceremony at the tent this weekend and clean it up. Hoping we never need it again.”
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