PhDs feel the housing shortage pinch

Future plans for building additional TU housing for (foreign) students and

PhD students is no relief for PhD students who can%t find suitable housing in Delft today.

Problems began for PhDs in July 2002, when housing company 'Woonnet Haaglanden' changed their housing application procedures. Previously, Phd students stayed in one-year short-stay TU accommodations during their first year in Delft; then, having registered with Woonnet Haaglanden according to their date of birth, they%d be given permanent accommodation for their remaining years in Delft on their birthdays.

But now the application procedure has changed: date of registration determines when one receives accommodation, not birth date. And waiting lists are long, much longer than the one-year time limit for short-stay accommodations. The housing company Duwo manages the short-stay accommodations, and after one year, PhDs must move out, regardless of whether they have another accommodation to move into.

Amr Ali Eldin, from Egypt, arrived in Delft in December 2001. His birthday was in September 2002, at which time he expected to be given an apartment. Eldin, a PhD at the Faculty of TBM, was in for a nasty surprise: Woningnet Haaglanden changed its procedures last summer, so Eldin had to vacate his apartment in September 2002. ,,I moved into temporary accommodation, but must move out in two months, because my landlady is selling the house,'' he says. Eldin tried every means available to find an apartment, but without success, and he can't afford private sector housing.

Michal Glazer, a PhD from Poland, faced a similar dilemma, but he took radical action. Helped by PROMOOD, the PhD Researcher's Association, Glazer collected 15 written complaints from Dutch and foreign PhD researchers who were similarly afflicted by housing problems and submitted them to the TU Executive Board. Last week he received a reply: TU administrators want to meet to discuss the issue. Glazer doesn't expect instant solutions, though, admitting that the problem is complex. He sees both long- and short-term solutions, and while building new housing units in northern Delft will help long-term, Glazer believes Duwo should provide short-term relief by extending Phd short-stay housing limits beyond just one year.

Today, Glazer is among the lucky few: he'll soon move into an affordable apartment in Delft city center, thanks to his research group's financial manager, who rents houses and had a room available. Still, Glazer remains an active advocate of reform. ,,Something must be done now. The TU must come up with solutions to the housing problems,'' Glazer says, adding, sardonically, that working as a housing campaigner was not why the TU hired him.

Eldin isn't so lucky. His housing woes are affecting his work: ,,Looking for accommodation consumes lots of time. Moreover, I can't properly concentrate on my research while worrying that someday I might be living on the street.'' The TU's Simone Jilderda, who advises PhDs, admits there's a housing problem, especially since Woonnet Haaglanden changed its application procedure. She'll accompany Glazer to his meeting with TU administrators next Friday: ,,Housing's a problem for all TU students, foreign and

Dutch, including PhDs. We'll make an inventory of how big the problem is and determine not only the number of researchers involved but also how it affects their work.''