For David Mihai Chira, TU/e bachelor student in Mechanical Engineering, it was quite difficult to find a place to live in Eindhoven: "I came here and did not know anyone. I had to discover everything myself. The concept of an open evening (‘kijkavond’) instead of a private viewing; wtf? In Canada where I come from, you just have free websites with the housing offer and you get a tour of the apartment/house of your choice. There is no rent allowance, but the rents are much lower than here. Through friends of friends, I found my first room through subletting. Then I found something for myself. I know people from the Design Academy who lived in tents until they found a room."

Finding a room was also a struggle for Princ: “I have tried agencies, I searched on Google, in Facebook groups and at the TU/e. There is a lot of demand and little to offer. Ads are restrictive using #dutchonly, #nostudents or #womenonly. TU/e does not get involved in the matter directly. It simply redirects you to third party websites where one is supposed to find housing on its own. But hardly anything comes out of them, just waiting lists. I was told two years at Vestide.”

"The fact that I had to search from Argentina did not make it any easier. I could not visit the viewings myself and the time difference made it difficult to respond in time if a new advertisement came online. As soon as something was posted, there were twenty responses in the first few minutes and the room was rented out in no time. I sent 55 e-mails to whatever I could find, out of desperation. Most landlords did not even send me an answer. This situation ensures that people benefit from the desperate international students. Just before my master started, I finally found something. I signed my contract on the plane, crazy. You are either lucky and you find something, or you are unlucky and homeless."

#Dutchonly

Discrimination on the housing market in the form of #dutchonly makes it even more difficult for internationals to find a room. They are already behind with a score of 2-0: can’t speak the Dutch language and the room often has to be arranged remotely. Chira wonders: "#dutchonly: is it about language or about ethnicity? When I was looking for a room I sent my messages in Dutch, but probably they noticed that I was not a native, because my Dutch was not that good at the time. One day I decided to change my last name to a Dutch last name to test if I could get an invitation for an open evening then. And that worked: I was invited. That was confronting."

The integration of international students is jeopardized by segregation. There are student houses with only Dutch people and houses with only internationals: "I did not feel at home in a Dutch-speaking student house. I did not understand the jokes and after the third time having the joke translated, I felt uncomfortable. I had no connection with the Dutch housemates. I feel bad I only feel comfortable with internationals," says Chira.

Many internationals are not just bothered by #dutchonly, but also by the fact that finding a room from afar is difficult. You cannot visit a viewing or come to the rental agency to physically sign papers. Ieva Vaitiekūnaitė, Bachelor's student Industrial Design, noticed the consequences of this: "I responded to a room of 10m2. This turned out to be two rooms of 5m2 each. That’s not what I expected."

She too suffered from #dutchonly: "Those rooms also seem to be the cheapest, but I cannot get one of those. I understand that Dutch students want to speak their own language at home, but if the university wants to attract more international students, it must also offer better options for living spaces. During the open days I especially came to Eindhoven and then I was told that housing is not a problem. The reality is very different. Aurora is too expensive for me and Vestide you can forget about for sure with those long waiting lists. Then it is already too late for an international student."

'We Want Woonruimte'

The student protest We Want Woonruimte was started in Eindhoven by students of the Design Academy, but all Eindhoven students are faced with the same problems. Helen Milne is co-organizer of the We Want Woonruimte Eindhoven protest. She lived in a holiday park herself for a while, but finally found a room. "I knew about twenty students who also lived in the holiday park and came from different colleges and universities." Matilde Losi, a student at the Design Academy, tells Cursor that there are students living on campsites. "With such a living space they cannot register with the municipality." Gavin Jones, also a DA student, endorses this: "The booking system for the holiday homes where I lived offered a maximum rental period of three weeks. If you wanted to stay longer, you had to change houses. These places are not intended for normal habitation, only as a holiday residence."

The room shortage and the energy it takes to get to a room are a source of frustration. Losi: "We bring money to this city because we come to study here and we want to be busy with our studies, not with where we can find our next shelter. The schools recruit students, but have no place for them to live."

Solutions

Chira: "They just need to build more, especially in the social rental sector. You must now be lucky to find an affordable place. Yet I do not think the university is responsible for that, students have to arrange a home themselves." Patrick Groothuis, ESA director, agrees with him: "Of course we have a responsibility, but we do not guarantee students a room. We are in contact with other parties such as the municipality of Eindhoven, Fontys and Vestide, to come up with ideas together to solve this problem. But our core business is research and education, not building and renting out living spaces. There is also a legal restriction for us. We are trying to facilitate it. To do so, we work together with external parties that build and operate housing. If such a living space is on campus, like the residential towers Luna and Aurora, we have a say in the target group that can live there. The residents must have a connection with the campus."

Milne now lives in an anti-squat room. But that is also not a structural solution given the one month notice period for the landlord in her contract. She is realistic about the situation: "I understand that such a big problem is not solved in one day, but we have to think about alternative short-term solutions until we have solved the problem structurally. It is simply not possible that students live in tents or on the couch of another student. We have been having good contact with the municipality since the protest. They listen to us now. The ideas for a steering committee and rental team in Eindhoven are received well and there is hope for the future."

Additional residential towers on the TU/e campus

The TU/e is open to a third residential tower on campus to contribute to a solution, but the university will not build or operate it itself. Groothuis: "If the municipality cooperates, we would be very positive about one or two additional residential towers for students and staff on campus. Third parties may submit a proposal for this, as Hurks recently did. "In Hurks’ plan, the new residential tower should be placed on the sports fields of the campus. It must become a building for living, working and learning. In the 30,000 square meter building, at least 250 student residences and 140 short-stay rooms should be realized. Hurks hopes to be able to start the project at the end of this year and completion could possibly already be in 2021, according to Eindhovens Dagblad.