Thursday last week, the Eindhovens Dagblad published a photograph of two students cozily leaning against each other in a small tent. Their names are Noam Hasak-Lowy and Adèle Visser. Both of them study at the Design Academy, and they are both forced to live in a tent since they were unable to find suitable housing in Eindhoven.

Hasak-Lowy is one of the initiators and presenters of The Sleepover at LAB-1. “Today marks my fourth week living in a tent,” she says. “Fortunately, I’ll be getting a key for a slightly better accommodation later this week.”

She spent the past two days asking internationals at TU/e about their housing situation. “Fifty percent of the people I spoke to also struggle with this problem. Many of them live in temporary rooms for which they need to pay up to a thousand euros every month. Or they live in an accommodation where they’re unhappy.”

LAB-1

One of the co-organizers of this evening of protest is Chris de Zeeuw, owner of LAB-1. De Zeeuw says that he fully endorses the initiative and that he hopes that politicians in Eindhoven will also start to appreciate the urgency of this problem. That is why he was glad to make his accommodation available. The organizers expect between eighty and one hundred students, fifty of which will be allowed to spend the night. “They do however need to bring their own sleeping mats,” De Zeeuw says. “Our call to entrepreneurial Eindhoven for a breakfast remained unanswered, unfortunately.”

The program consists of a movie by students about their ‘alternative’ student room in Eindhoven, followed by – as the organizers describe it – a ‘collective dream activity:’ students will be divided into five groups for a two-hour long session during which they will share and visualize ideas with the aim of designing a plan to tackle their housing problem. Next, they will present their plan to the rest of the group. Mieke Verhees, alderwomen responsible for public housing, will also be present tonight, her spokesperson says. “She won’t be giving a speech, instead, she’ll be there to listen to people and to enter into a discussion with them.”