Short Stay Facility

    
     
   
     

City of Dorcrecht
www.woondrecht.nl
 

    
     

Step Aside

Many new initiatives and types of accommodations develop within the network city. In Dordrecht the growing demand for temporary, affordable housing for various target groups was met by founding the Short Stay Facility. People can come and stay at the Short Stay Facility for six months (at most) when they find themselves without a place to live, due to personal reasons such as a renovation or a divorce. Companies, organisations, and institutions can also, temporarily, rent accommodations for employees. The Short Stay Facility has successfully operated for the past six years.
 

    
   

 

History

The Short Stay Facility building was a rest home until halfway through the nineties. In those days all kinds of organisations (schools, companies, and institutes) turned out to be regularly looking for temporary housing for – for example – project assistants, interns, and clients. The basic idea for a new type of housing ‘product’ was born.

After a thorough renovation the Short Stay Facility now has 190 single and double room apartments. Some of these apartments are furnished, others are fitted with curtains and carpets only. There is a supermarket, a restaurant, a hair salon, and a laundromat on the ground floor. Clients of various institutions work here, in order to obtain work experience. Sometimes up to sixty different nationalities are represented in this facility. Residents can stay in the Short Stay Facility for six months at the most.
 

    
     

Magic Mix

Residents get in touch with the facility through intervention of one of the organisations that are joined in an association: the business community, schools and educational institutes, welfare services and care provision institutions. This association takes care of the formal procedures and makes sure that not too many guests with a similar background move into the facility at the same time. This magic mix is the secret ingredient for the Short Stay Facility’s success: it ensures a continuing diversity and prevents social tensions.
 

    
     

Preparing meals together

There is only one hot plate in the apartment, hardly enough for cooking an entire meal. This was done on purpose. People are now ‘forced’ to associate with eachother and prepare meals together. In this roundabout manner the Short Stay Facility wants to enhance the community spirit. It turns out to be successful
 

    
     

Successor: Foyer de Jeunes Travailleurs

The success of the Short Stay Facility has inspired the ‘Woondrecht’ housing corporation to think of additional projects. Soon they came up with a special foyer for young people.
At the Short Stay Facility it turned out that particularly young people are often incapable of finding a place of their own or to become self sufficient within six months. The foyer would be a ideal sequence to the Short Stay Facility.

The objective of the foyer is providing sheltered living. The best way to describe the foyer is as follows: it is a combination of a youth hostel, student housing, and a boarding school. It offers young people the support they need: a relief network and some services. It is the best step in preparing young people to live completely on their own.
 

    
     

Special floor for women

There is also a special floor for teen aged mothers. The foyer offers them security and encouragement. The living arrangements are plain, well kept, and inviting. Every resident has her own small apartment: a room with an open kitchen, a shower area and a lavatory. There is a semi-private room for on the ground floor.
 

    
     

Future

In the middle of May 2003 the first residents will move into the foyer. The object of the foyer is to be able to accommodate at most 600 young people in the long run. Plans are existing for expanding services: an Internet café, a library, and various sport facilities.