No Panic at African Inn

The student housing facility African Inn seems to attract criminals, but the students who live there are satisfied.

The AD newspaper recently reported that a security firm has been hired to provide security for the African Inn and its residents, mostly foreign students. The student housing facility apparently attracts criminals. However, living conditions for the eighty international students of the EUR housed there, seem good at the moment.

The African Inn in the ‘Afrikaander’ area in the south of Rotterdam houses 150 students and is owned and managed by the Stadswonen housing corporation. Students have lived in the building since 2002. The city of Rotterdam and Stadswonen believe the students to be a valuable contribution to the area.

Much of the building’s interior is currently being renovated, including the damage caused by the opening of a fire hydrant last July by an unknown person. In July, the building stood almost empty, with the new international students not yet having arrived.

Stadswonen’s Patricia Kouwen explains that the students’ rooms at the African Inn are really nice and that right now “none of the previous vandalism is happening”. Stadswonen invests heavily in the students’ wellbeing.

One of the residents, Koen Willems from Belgium, says he feels perfectly fine both in the multicultural neighbourhood and inside the African Inn. However, reactions of people about the area are not always good. And yes, the corridors and lifts are still being worked on, but Koen, Master-student CESM, is content with both his room and the area. KL