For more than a month, the inhabitants of 150 social housing units in Evere have had to manage without hot water and for some of them, even without heating. With the current winter temperatures, the situation is becoming less and less tenable.
Evere, in the Brussels region. Laïla’s first thing in the morning is to turn on the kitchen oven to get some heat: “I have to otherwise we freeze them all”, explains this mother of 4 children. “Especially since it’s tiling.” she specifies. Laïla lives in social housing. The only means of heating is an electrical device provided by the housing company. “Frankly, I’m afraid of the electricity bill that will fall on me. I don’t know how it will happen.”
The boiler that supplies the building has been out of order since November 11. Result, no heating and no hot water. “I heat pans. I make kettles. Fortunately, we have electricity. I fill the bath like this.”
A total of 150 homes are affected by this outage. The inhabitants denounce a recurring situation. Sonia, tenant for 30 years: “It’s been 3 years that it lasts already, that there are problems with each entry of winter. There are some repairs. This time, there is no more repair possible.”
You come home, you don’t even know how to take a shower properly
Mathieu Vervoort, president of Everecity, the housing company, defends himself: “Every year, our boilers are serviced. Each year, there is a relaunch which is planned before the summer with our service provider, but unfortunately, we are never safe from a technical problem.
In front of our camera, Mathieu Vervoort is challenged by exhausted residents like Geneviève, tenant for 17 years, for whom the lack of heating has consequences on his professional life: “At work, people tell me ‘Geneviève, you’re much more nervous at the moment.’ How can you not be? You come home, you don’t even know how to take a shower properly. We are still at the end of 2022.”
While waiting for a new installation scheduled for December 23, an alternative solution has been found: a mobile oil-fired boiler is due to arrive on Tuesday. The housing company also promises lump-sum reductions on electricity costs to offset the cost of auxiliary heaters.
