Rich Germany, poor people

2023-12-22 08:48:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The first ones arrived half an hour earlier. Every Wednesday the homeless can eat, drink, warm up and use the toilet in the premises of the Tabor community church in Berlin. Soon they will also be offered a warm meal. It still feels like a lot of people slept here the night before. For 30 years, the church has offered sleeping places for the homeless once a week. About forty people spend the night in the vestibule of the church. Sometimes it is sixty. They are given something to eat. And two volunteer doctors tend to wounds or illnesses.

Sabine Albrecht is the pastor of the Tabor community. "Those who fall from the social ladder also come here. For some, the situation is very miserable," she says. Those who come to sleep are different from those who come to the cafe on Wednesday, says the priestess. Many come from Eastern Europe, some have even worked - in precarious working conditions. Some have addiction problems, experiences of violence, mental illness. Albrecht tells of a man who "has been sleeping here for twenty years." The 59-year-old even buried two of the guests, as she calls them.

Rich Germany, poor people

How can one bear so much misery? "The helper syndrome doesn't help you. You have to be strong and not take things personally," says Albrecht. The point is to be able to face even aggressive and tough people. This requires people like Margot Moser, who has helped organize overnight stays for the homeless from the very beginning. Together with twenty other assistants, the 79-year-old still actively helps today. Perhaps because she has always had to make do with little money, she wants to help. However, she has no illusions. "Some have suffered from stupidity: They live with someone, give up their apartment, then break up - and end up on the street," says the community helper. And whoever loses their apartment today cannot find a new one so quickly.

Many homeless people are not included in the statistics

"Lack of shelter is a serious social problem," Werena Rosenke, managing director of the Federal Association for the Assistance of the Homeless (BAGW), tells DW. For Rosenke, the main reason is that there is too little housing space that is financially affordable. .

BAGW is the umbrella organization for emergency housing services and support structures in Germany. According to their latest estimate for the year 2022 there were 607,000 homeless people in Germany. About 50,000 of them lived on the streets, without any shelter. The Federal Statistics Office registers only people in shelters and reaches 372,060 people.

The difference from the lower figures of the Federal Statistics Office lies in the counting method. BAG W records the figures for a whole year and not for a specific date. It also counts the hidden homeless. So people without their own home, who sleep on the couch with friends, family members or strangers.

Rich Germany, poor people

Prevent the lack of shelter in advance

For Werena Rosenke, things don't have to come to this point. "Prevention is the most important thing. We have to prevent people from losing their housing. Many people don't even know that they can apply for money for housing", says Rosenke. For the municipalities, it would be more beneficial if they took over the rental debts, instead of financing hostels in hotels or other accommodations, which are often very expensive," she says.

Werena Rosenke mentions many measures that can prevent the loss of the apartment quickly and without much expense. For example, the renovation of emergency shelters and their transformation into social housing. Because social housing is now like gold dust: very rare.

Building social housing is everything

The German government's goal is to build 400,000 new homes per year; 100,000 of them should be social housing. But the government is miles away from these goals. For Werena Rosenke, this is still a modest target: 100,000 social housing units per year, as promised by the government, would not have sufficiently changed the situation of the lack of affordable housing, she says. In addition to social housing, 100,000 more affordable housing will be needed.

In recent years, only about 25,000 new social housing units have been created", complains the head of BAG W. Rosenke calls for fixed quotas for homeless people in social housing. Because due to prejudice they are often not even considered as potential tenants.

The Homeless Steering Committee is in talks with the government. She has announced that through an action plan until 2030 she wants to put an end to being homeless in Germany. The action plan is expected to be approved by the government cabinet in the spring of 2024. However, it may take years before it is implemented by the states and municipalities.

Let's go back to the Tabor community. There are still about ten people in the antechamber of the church. A man is lying in front of the radiator in the corridor. Pastor Sabine Albrecht smiles and says, "Some do it to warm up again." Two men read books with community bread and coffee in front. They look like old students. This is noticeable even to the pastor. "More and more often, people come here to the Wednesday cafe, who would never have occurred to me to be in need or homeless."/ DW