Past and present
Renting from a landlady
1982
It seems as though there has always been a shortage of accommodation for students. In the 1980s it was common for students to rent a room from a landlady. It was handy for the student and it provided a modest additional income for the landlady. On this photo you can see Mrs. A. Groenewoud-de Oude celebrating 50 years (!) as landlady of the student house Ramstraat 17 in Utrecht. Behind her, from left to right, are her tenants: P.M.R. Fechner and M.C. van der Pol (Law), J.D.S. Gaastra (Veterinary Medicine), H.J. van Unen (Medicine) and N.J. Salomonsen (Law). It seems that tenants and landlady were very happy with each other.
2024
A lot has changed for students since the 1980s, but the shortage of rooms remains the same. It appears, therefore, that the number of students renting a room from a ‘landlady’ (or host) has been on the rise for several years now. What’s more, in Utrecht, there is even a company for this. Hospi Housing was set up in 2018 as a wild and idealistic idea of three friends, two of whom were former students of Utrecht University. They now call themselves a social enterprise and are active throughout the Netherlands. They look for suitable accommodation with friendly hosts and facilitate the right match between host and student through their online system. The match between tenant Celestia (left) from Canada and host Sanna has definitely been a success. Celestia graduated with a Master’s in European law last year but the two of them still chat with each other on Whatsapp.