It’s an unreal sight. Nico Klomp (39) and Wendy Laurensen (40) have been sleeping in a former bus shelter on Meierijbaan in Tilburg since Saturday. “It is unbearable.”
The appalling conditions of the two stand out. The couple has hung a banner next to the busy Kemperbaan. It reads in colored capital letters: ‘Family wrongfully homeless.’ Wendy: “I did this out of sheer desperation.”
They can only cover their sleeping and living quarters with a tarp. All the unemployed couple has with them is a shopping cart with two suitcases and a few blankets. “It’s freezing and freezing here at night,” Wendy says.
They don’t let their 7-year-old son Nicootje sleep in the bus shelter. They have placed them with grandma, in a seniors’ flat a little further away. The family also lived there for a while, but they don’t like that anymore. “It is impossible to do that with all of us in an old people’s flat”, Nico knows.
However, they are not completely left to their own devices. Wendy: “We get coffee from local residents. I can also charge my phone near people.” They get food from the food bank, but otherwise they seem to be on their own.
They find it difficult to explain how exactly the two ended up in this situation. They rattle and get bogged down in details about lawsuits, authorities, youth care and incidents. Verifying their story is complicated by the many authorities and privacy legislation.
The two have a long history. On October 9 last year, things go badly wrong, when the family ends up on the street. In their own words, because their emergency home in Tilburg-West has been declared uninhabitable by the municipality. “It leaked into the meter cupboard and it was a fire hazard,” Nico knows. There would also be unjustified complaints about nuisance of the two.
After that, the couple says they have lived in a car for months. It was recently taken by the police. The couple says they still don’t know why. And so a bus shelter afterwards was ‘the least bad option’. “We just want help from the authorities. They don’t do what they should do.” Wendy continues in tears: “I just want a home and a future for our son.”
Yet despite their plight, the couple still has a glimmer of hope. “I dream of my own business. I want to set up an ironing service. I also have to keep hope, that’s my job as a mother. We’re not giving up.”
City councilor Linda Oerlemans visited the couple on Tuesday afternoon. She hopes that a solution will be found soon and will now raise the situation with the mayor and aldermen.
The municipality of Tilburg says that the family has its full attention. “It is a well-known case. We are working hard on a solution with all authorities.”