Duwo responds to needs of Ukrainian and Russian students

Duwo, one of the biggest student accommodation providers in the Netherlands, expects that students from Ukraine and Russia could have difficulty paying the rent because of the war and the associated sanctions. They are therefore offering the students a payment scheme to “meet their initial needs”.

In addition, the housing association wants to have talks with educational institutions about how to deal with a situation in which students cannot return home at the end of the semester.

Extra accommodation
Together with educational institutions, Duwo is looking at accommodation for refugee students that have ended up in the Netherlands and might want to continue their studies here. “We can discuss how, between us, we can arrange accommodation, either in existing student housing facilities or by creating extra housing facilities.”

Duwo is holding talks with municipalities about such extra housing facilities. They want to quickly add temporary accommodation to Duwo locations so as to house refugees. “Ideally with the potential to convert them into student housing units after they have been used temporarily for refugees.”

The municipality of Delft reports on its website [in Dutch, ed.] that it has taken in 120 refugees. Mainly women and children. They are accommodated in the Campanile hotel, the Hampshire hotel, the Ibis hotel, at Vakantiepark Delftse Hout, in a B&B and in building De Pauwmolen. The latter building, a newly built apartment block with 285 dwellings, was completed last year to house young people and students.

The government announced today that accommodation is to be organised at reception centres for 15,000 Ukrainian refugees. “These will mainly include office buildings and perhaps a prison”, Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning Hugo de Jonge told Algemeen Dagblad. The government has allocated 75 million euros for that purpose.

HOP, Josefine van Enk
Translation: Taalcentrum-VU