The Municipality of Aa en Hunze must do more to help home-seeking starters and the elderly to buy or rent a house. The village interest associations of Gasselternijveen and Eext write this in a letter to the city council and the college of mayor and aldermen.
According to the associations, in both villages there are too few suitable or affordable houses for young people and seniors. As a result, these groups are forced to look for a home in other places, while they prefer to continue living in their own village.
It is not due to a lack of plans for new homes. Village cooperative De Brug from Gasselternijveen has had three projects ready for some time now that a contractor, if it is up to the association, can get to work on immediately.
The village association has submitted plans to the municipality for the construction of tiny houses, an idea for eight small homes behind the Protestant Church and the transformation of the monumental building of the former town hall into care apartments.
Only little has been done with the projects, and according to De Brug that is partly due to the passive attitude of the officials. The village cooperative demands that the municipality take concrete steps within a month to solve the housing problems. “New homes should have been built yesterday, it’s that simple. But it remains deafening silence. We would prefer forty to fifty more homes,” says Jan Willem Koops of the village cooperative.
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