"Don't be ashamed, but raise the alarm"

It's 2019. Gerben has everything. His own business in construction and a rented house he gets to buy over from the owner. Then things go wrong. "I was standing in the garden and the neighbour asked what I was doing," Gerben explains. "I didn't remember that." Gerben suffers burnout. "The GP told me to stop working, so I quit my business."

Next, Gerben enters welfare. There are also outstanding bills. "That's what my landlord heard. Through a lawsuit, he made sure I had to leave my house. And that while I was allowed to buy it over until recently. That house was going to be my pension."

Meanwhile, we are in a corner flat at the very top of a flat in the Freedom Quarter. Beautiful views over the city on one side and the countryside on the other. Gerben sits with Pieter in the living room. Pieter is a social worker at Amaryllis. "Fortunately, Gerben was already registered with the housing association," Pieter says. "He was able to move into this flat pretty quickly." Around one of the windows, Gerben made a frame. "It's like a painting."

A birdhouse hangs on his balcony. "Every year titmice come here to build a nest. Very nice to see. Maybe I should start charging them rent to share in the heating costs," he laughs.

It is late 2021 and everything seems to be going well again. Pieter puts Gerben in touch with the credit bank, which helps him pay off his old debts. "I wanted to get back to work and started applying for jobs," says Gerben. "Then in January 2022, I fell by bike and broke my leg. Pieter still went to the hospital with me." "Nice pink cast you got," adds Pieter, laughing. Shortly after the plaster cast was off his leg, Gerben got corona. "I called the GP. He thought I sounded very hoarse over the phone and wanted me to do a test. And yes, it was positive." The disease affected him a lot. "I still suffer from it. I can do something for an hour at most, then I'm exhausted."

As Gerben sits at home from the next setback, last year's final gas bill arrives. "I have block heating here, I had no idea how that works. That bill was very high. I couldn't pay that one."

That bill is causing Gerben to risk being evicted from his home again. "I wanted to move on so badly, but it just didn't work out," he explains. "What was I supposed to do now? Hit the streets? I didn't know anymore." Then comes the low point. "You may as well know. I had already arranged everything. My valuables would go into storage where my brother could access them. I had already arranged a place for her," he looks at his doggie sitting next to him. "I would swallow a load of pills and empty a bottle of liquor. That's how far I was. But I didn't. I didn't do it."

Pieter intervenes. "Who will benefit if Gerben is evicted from his home? He can take care of himself just fine. Only because of accumulated misery, he has lost track of things for a while now. That can really happen to anyone." Pieter goes to the municipality with Gerben to come to an arrangement. "Because of the high gas bill, the credit bank didn't know how to solve this either. We sat down with the municipality to see what kind of customisation we could provide to help Gerben move forward." In tailoring, we try to help someone as best we can, but also expect a quid pro quo.

They agree that Gerben will pay off as much of his debts as possible and be placed under protective custody. That means all mail goes through the administrator. "People who are in debt are often unable to look ahead," Pieter explains. "One bill follows another. They can no longer think: in two years I want to buy a car. They often have to choose between putting food on the table today or paying a bill. That causes a lot of stress. The advantage of guardianship is that Gerben now no longer sees the bills himself, so he no longer has the stress of that. This allows him to find some peace again to look further ahead."

Have you lost track of your money matters? Or do you want to talk about something else? "Ring the bell in time. Don't run away from it, because they always know where to find you" says Gerben. "I will soon be 55. I've had everything, but have also lost everything again. It can happen to anyone. I'm so glad Pieter pulled my cart for a while, otherwise I wouldn't have known."

Gerben is optimistic about the future. "I would like to get back among people a bit more. I still have some good ideas I want to work out. But let's see how far I can get again."

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