Carlos Tavares, who has been living and working in Luxembourg for one year, remembers exactly how it happened. The fire started around 1.30am on July 16 and it was his sister Marcia who first noticed the flames and alerted the family to the imminent threat.
Since the fire affected the café on the ground floor of the building, the family was forced to escape through a window on the second floor. They left everything behind, recalls 25-year-old Tavares, still under shock: “I have not been able to sleep well since. As soon as I wake up, I immediately think about the fire. But it could have been worse. I had almost fallen asleep.”
Tavares and his two sisters spent the night of the fire at their brother’s place rather than opting to find shelter at one of the capital’s Foyer homes. As it later turned out, this was a bad decision, as it means that they are no longer eligible for support.
Mila Tavares elaborates: “We later got there and they told us that they cannot help us. ‘You have a job’, they said, which surprised us. What if we did not have family nearby? Would we have been out on the street? ... We need help and we deserve help from here. But I’ve only been in Luxembourg for two months, I did not know this rule. We did not know how things work. I am still simply stunned.”
The family now lives at a friend’s place, sleeping on the couch and on mattresses on the floor.
According to Luxembourg City Alderman Maurice Bauer, there is no prospect of relocation, which has its reasons: “The family told us that they have a nearby solution. Then they returned to find accommodation with us since their alternative was not feasible long-term. Now we have to wait and see, when they came back we had no apartment at our disposal. We will sit down with them and try to find a solution for the future. But that is problematic due to the situation of our housing market. We are not in a position where we can say something to the effect of ‘how many apartments do you need, we have enough’.”
Family Tavares has now launched a call for donations. They already received clothes and are thankful for any money that people can spare. They hope to eventually use the money to cover the deposit of a new apartment.
