MBO students still refused when renting a room in the old ACTA building

MBO students are still not entitled to a student room in the old ACTA building in Nieuw-West, despite promises from the landlord and owner. Last year it turned out that students were rejected as residents because they are not following higher vocational education or a university course, but are MBO students. The city raised the issue with the landlord TWA and the owner De Alliantie, but a year later, not a single MBO student was admitted.

Students come and go in the old ACTA building on the Louwesweg in Slotervaart. That means: higher professional education and university students. Teun Otte, chairman of the ASVA Student Union, also lives there. But despite the promises of the landlord TWA and the owner De Alliantie, MBO students still cannot rent a room.

Nothing has changed

Teun Otte: “Nothing has changed at all. We have done our best to change. We are built by Socius (which includes TWA, ed.), by the housing provider and by the municipality. Points are being marked on all three sides, but MBO students are still excluded from this building. That’s really bad.”

After an MBO student did not get a rental contract last year after having a successful residency, the city entered into negotiations with all parties. The issue seemed to be resolved, but according to the director of Socius, a contract change must be made first, they reported in response to questions from the ASVA at the end of October this year.

“The problem is simple: in January we already said that we had no objection to the admission of MBO students while the Federation changed the contract.
admission of higher professional education students. Legally, I am relying on the advice of our lawyer, who says the contract needs to be changed. Which seems logical to me.”

Change of contract

ACTA building owner De Alliantie says he is surprised. They already informed TWA in black and white at the end of last October that, out of the old contract, rooms could be rented out to MBO students. This does not require a contract change, they say.

Until now, Alderman for Housing Dirk de Jager believed that the issue was resolved after the conversation at the end of last year. He regrets that this is not true and asked the Federation to resolve the issue with TWA. TWA has not been available by phone since late last week and is not responding to our emails.