© Diana Hoffmann / RTL
For months, a 50-year-old woman has been searching for housing, but her chances of finding one from the outset were slim, putting her family at serious risk of homelessness.
Boxes packed, suitcases ready, Yvonne Da Fonseca alongside her three daughters – all still in school – have been waiting for four months for a new home. The appartment they have been living in will be torn down for a new project.
The 50-year-old woman herself never really believed that she would find anything that her disability pension of just over €2,000 allows. "The real estate agencies didn't even call me back", she says. Yvonne worked as a cleaner for 30 years, even when she was already seriously ill. Since May 2023, she has been unable to work and is waiting for a lung transplant.
"Poverty makes you ill and illness makes you poor", explains a social worker from the Nordstad welfare office. Yvonne has always managed to pay her rent, but she requested assistance for other social services because she realised she couldn't do it alone and struggled to understand the application process.
However, a letter she received in August could not be clearer: Yvonne and her daughters will be evicted from the apartment they have lived in for the past 20 years. She was granted a reprieve in court and a second one later on, but a reprieve would always be subject to conditions, explains her lawyer, Marc Walch. Yvonne would have to continue paying her rent and make substantial efforts to find a new apartment, which she has been doing consistently. Yvonne would likely be granted a third reprieve, the lawyer explained, praising his client's courage. But, she has already reached out to several institutions and has tried relentlessly to find a home on the normal market, according to the lawyer.
For Yvonne, however, the story seems to have a happy ending after all. Recently, the Nordstad welfare office informed her that the office has found a home for her. "With a lot of luck and coincidence", emphasises Alain Lenertz, in charge of the Nordstad welfare office.
The Nordstad welfare office currently manages 119 homes, including 49 municipal properties and 70 homes under social rental management, a government initiative where private individuals allow others to manage their vacant properties for a set fee. "We currently have a waiting list of 276 households. That represents around 700 people", Alain Lenertz explains by drawing attention to the urgency of the situation. What is clear to Lenertz is that there is definitely not enough social housing.
