Truus Brink slept badly for ten months. She worried, was awake, felt the tension to her bones. Just like Piet Notenbomer and Ineke Bulthuis. Because did they have to leave the Vasalis building in Roden for new plans? Now they finally have clarity: they can continue to live there.
Last Thursday, the redeeming word of interim director Annemarieke Nagel from the Woonborg housing association: nobody is put out of his home. The next day a letter followed to all residents, in which the Black-on-white decision was confirmed. The flag went out. They cuddled. Tears of relief flowed.
The reason for all commotion started almost a year ago. Housing corporation Woonborg wanted to transform 21 apartments in the Vasalis building into care homes. The residents received a letter with the request to move, so that space could be made for the elderly with a heavier need for care. The plans fell raw on the roof of the residents, they feared to lose their familiar place. “The then director thought we would disappear voluntarily,” says Piet Notenbomer, chairman of the residents’ committee. “But she was disappointed.”
With the promise that no one has to leave, the pressure of the boiler is. “It was a suit of our heart,” says Brink, who is sitting with a smile on what she calls the ‘joy bench’. “We have agreed that we all want to be a hundred. Then they are not nearly away from us.”
The relief was tangible, she says. “My son -in -law came to the door and said: you can stay. Then I didn’t know what happened to me. Everyone was so happy, that is not to be described. The first night afterwards I slept like a block. And still.”
Notenbomer also remembers the moment exactly. “There were flags on both sides of the building,” he says. Ten months of stress and insomnia preceded it. “People had to go to the doctor, it was so bad. But we rebelled, and that worked.”
Commission member Ineke Bulthuis is happy. “But for me it is not completely quiet yet.” Her care is in the future of the building. Woonborg has indicated that it wants to retain the complex for care homes in the long term. What that means in concrete terms is not yet clear. “I would have liked those plans to be completely off the table.”
An important turning point in the entire process was the visit of Minister Fleur Agema (PVV) at the beginning of February. The Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport came to Roden to speak with the residents. “She was friendly, cozy, but also genuinely interested,” said Truus Brink at the time. “Many emotions came loose. Telling your story to someone with power, that does something to you.” Nutbomer also looked back with satisfaction: “She understood the dilemma. On the one hand the future of care, on the other hand the importance of these people and their home. That made an impression.”
As a minister, Agema could not make any knots, but clearly expressed itself. She called on Housing Corporation Woonborg to reconsider the plans and argued for cooperation instead of conflict. She saw a new building elsewhere in Roden, as a better alternative. “I can’t decide, but I can say it,” she said.
It is clear that no one has to move for the time being. “We have listened carefully to the concerns of residents and take them very seriously,” said Annemarieke Nagel, interim director director of Woonborg. “Together with residents and care group Drenthe, we want to see how we can live with a plus in a careful way within Vasalis. And we also involve the municipality. “
The permit application is in any case temporarily paused, until July 9. This has partly returned the peace. “We stay here. As long as we want it,” says Notenbomer.