Students want safety nets after fifth suicide at complex: ‘I don’t want to go through this again’

In the past eight years, five people have attempted suicide by jumping from the balconies of a student complex in Tilburg. This summer, another person jumped. The residents of the complex are becoming desperate. They live in the silence between the crashes. ‘This has been happening for years; we need safety nets.’

‘That explains the extremely loud noise I heard this morning, heavy stuff,’ writes student Max in his student flat’s Facebook group. It is July 4, 2017, and that night someone had jumped outside his apartment. ‘The body was lying right next to the glass wall by the elevators, and quite a few people saw it,’ Evie writes.

It would not be the last time this happens.

In recent years, the student complex just outside Tilburg’s city center has become a place where at least five people have ended their lives by suicide. If not more, as not all suicides may be officially recorded as such. The victims jumped from one of the two towers, which are thirteen and ten stories high. The towers are named after great minds from history, meant to be an inspiration for the students in Tilburg.

The victims jumped at the beginning of spring, on New Year’s Eve, in the summer, at night, or in the middle of the day. Last year, two people jumped, and one each in 2020 and 2017. Sometimes they were residents of the complex, sometimes not.

The latest jump occurred in July this year.

The complex is a student flat like so many others in the country. Noisy and somewhat dirty, the elevators sometimes smell of urine, and beer bottles are regularly shattered in the stairwell. Delivery services like Thuisbezorgd and Uber Eats are frequent visitors here. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the laundry room on the ground floor was used for several corona parties, and in the stairwells, homeless people spend the night during winter.

The flat screams student life in every way. At the same time, this is a place where five people have tried to end their lives. And perhaps they will not be the last.

A white sheet

The shock for the bereaved is immense, but the residents of the complex also repeatedly face a heavy burden. They assist with resuscitation. They look over the balcony and see a body lying below. They see the white tents, the funeral car outside, and the tiles being cleaned with a pressure washer.

Or they stay inside, in their 24-square-meter studio, waiting for a text from someone saying they can go outside again, sometimes crying on the phone with friends or family.

The more suicides occur, the more residents of the complex develop tics to cope. Students living on the ground floor increasingly avoid their courtyard. ‘I always walk as close to the walls of the building as possible, underneath the balconies, so I don’t have that large open gap above my head,’ says Mirthe (23), who lives on the ground floor of one of the towers.

She has witnessed the aftermath of a suicide three times in her flat. On New Year’s Eve, she and her sister were in her room, planning to go out to Club Smederij in the Tilburg Spoorzone after a few drinks. ‘When we opened the door, we suddenly realized what had happened. There was a white sheet on the ground and someone underneath it. I had a hard time dealing with it for several weeks.’

And many students share Mirthe’s experience. Some students left for a few days to stay with their parents after the latest attempt, to avoid being at the scene of the tragedy. Others deliberately avoid the elevator, as it can stop on the ground floor. Students in the complex turn their gaze away from the ground and take alternative routes to their doors.

Burning candles

‘I keep fearing that someone might fall from the sky,’ says Lorenzo (24), who lives on the first floor in the eastern tower. He was outside with a friend when the latest attempt took place. ‘People were frozen. I was trembling, full of adrenaline, and called the ambulance. On the phone, they said someone had to resuscitate that man. When the police arrived, they saw that it was too late.’

Along with another resident, Lorenzo set up a memorial table during the previous attempt, on New Year’s Eve last year. ‘Take care of yourself and the people around you. We see you, we hear you, and we care about you,’ read the text on the accompanying in memoriam in English. The table was removed by the landlord.

This time, there are bouquets of flowers at the spot where it happened. And candles.

‘If possible, I’ll move out as soon as I can,’ says Lorenzo. ‘I’m furious because this has been happening for years. There need to be nets. They might prevent people from jumping.’

Student Michelle (20) had to deal with the suicide of her housemate last March. The landlord SSH Student Housing communicated very poorly with her about it. ‘SSH did not hold a memorial, they didn’t talk to us extensively, they didn’t even send an email to the residents of the flat. Only when the university organized a memorial did SSH send an email about it. They did nothing themselves.’ Now, every time she sees someone pacing on the upper floors, she fears it will happen again.

SSH primarily works well with the ‘current processes,’ thinks a former member of the flat’s housing board. ‘The Tilburg branch has no idea how to be flexible. Every time there is another suicide, they let the police in and write it down. Nothing more happens.’ The former housing board has repeatedly tried to introduce measures to prevent suicides, such as anti-suicide nets.

Permanent solution

The current housing board is doing exactly the same, says Shashank Misra (23). He has tried, on behalf of the new housing board, to bring the nets back onto the agenda in discussions with the local SSH branch. ‘We do get signals that SSH is positively inclined. We’ve discussed it with them multiple times. The problem seems to be primarily with TBV Wonen.’

The Tilburg housing corporation TBV Wonen owns the building and outsources the rental management to SSH. ‘TBV Wonen is a bit slow with changes to the building itself. We really wanted the nets to be installed quickly after the last attempt on New Year’s Eve last year, but nothing has happened yet.’ In response to an email sent by a concerned resident on January 1 of this year, SSH replied: ‘We are urgently discussing with the owner of the building to find a permanent solution in the short term.’

That response is now over seven months old, and nothing has changed. A petition to expedite measures has been signed 150 times.

However, according to SSH, the nets are now indeed on the agenda, says spokesperson Joris van Eijck. ‘The nets have been added to our joint plan to enhance safety and livability in the flat. This plan was awaiting formal approval. The installation has now been separated from this plan and pushed forward.’ The housing corporation expects to install the nets in the third quarter of this year. So, the nets should be up by the end of September.

TBV Wonen had some doubts about the nets for a while because they didn’t want the complex to get the reputation of a ‘suicide flat.’ ‘Maybe that would encourage people to jump, which we want to avoid. We have now decided to install the nets anyway. We want to do everything we can to prevent this from happening again, and we’ll have to see if the nets actually prevent suicides at this location,’ says communications advisor Esther van Westen.

Tilburg University rents 250 rooms in the complex to international students. A large portion of the residents study at the university. The university has now promised to set up a working group in the fall to look into ‘additional interventions’ they could implement, alongside the nets.

In the meantime, students with mental health issues can reach out to the university if they wish. ‘We understand that such events can have an impact on residents, potentially leading to traumatic or depressive issues. In such cases, students can contact our student psychologists, as well as our confidential advisers or student pastor. If necessary, we refer them appropriately,’ says university spokesperson Imre van der Meulen.

At the student flat itself, they now mainly hope that the events will fade and that the July attempt will be the last one. ‘I cannot and do not want to go through this again.’

The specific location of this flat is not mentioned to prevent copycat behavior.

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