Homeless people – “Berlin spends a lot of money on housing that is not humane”
Photo: dpa/Stephanie Pilick
Elfriede Brüning heads the Caritas advice center for homeless people in Berlin-Moabit. She observes that more and more families are affected – and in an interview describes the system of homeless assistance as in need of reform.
rbb|24: Ms Brüning, you have been advising homeless people for 35 years. How many people came to your facility yesterday during consultation hours?
Elfriede Brüning: About 70. We now have an average of 74 contacts per day: people who come directly to our consultation hours, but also desperate calls and emails. It is always difficult for people who have a ton of problems and are about to lose their home or have already lost it to find a way to talk to strangers about their problems. Some people prefer to call. Recently, more and more women have also been contacting us by phone or email. It is increasingly households with children that are turning to us. Last year, we had 612 affected children. That is unimaginable! We were very surprised by how much these numbers have increased.
To person
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Caritas Advice Centre – Elfriede Brüning
Brüning has been running the central advice center for people in need of housing at Lewetzowstrasse 12a in Berlin-Moabit for more than 20 years. The advice center has been available there since 1980; before that, homeless people had hardly any places to turn to. Since 1997, the Berlin City Mission has run the advice center alongside the Caritas Association for the Archdiocese of Berlin. According to Caritas, around 3,300 people are advised there every year. The center also manages around 2,200 postal addresses for the homeless.
To what extent were you able to help people?
People are really happy that they can talk about their problems at all. We go through it with them: what are their requirements, are there any compromises with the landlord? We consider: are there ways for the children to continue to go to the same school? I notice that it’s taking a toll on their psyche. They feel worse and worse when they keep failing and aren’t even invited to apartment viewings. I once ordered a client to take a week off from looking for an apartment. He was really happy about it – because he was under so much pressure: to keep looking, looking.
What has changed in the last decades?
After the fall of the Wall, we had a paradise. There were empty apartments in East Berlin because many people had left, and you could negotiate great deals with landlords. Then some blocks were demolished, cheap apartments destroyed, and politicians started to control things less. Subsidies ran out, and so there were fewer and fewer cheap apartments.
Berlin is now a metropolis. People come here from all federal states, from all over Europe and from all over the world – in recent years, massive numbers. I think it’s good that Berlin says: We’re not stopping here, the refugees just need support. But there are simply far too few accommodations for so many people. Not to mention living space. We’re feeling a clear backlog on the streets. A third of our clients are living on the sofa of friends or relatives. Sometimes two families live in a two-room apartment. The city absolutely has to intervene in the control of the housing market again.
Elfriede Brüning on the accommodation of homeless people
Berlin is trying to do this to some extent, for example with social housing subsidies.
That is not enough. More needs to be built. It is expensive, but there are also ways to build in other ways so that it remains affordable. And the system of housing the homeless needs to be completely changed. It is far too expensive. According to the General Security and Order Act (ASOG), people have a legal right to housing. These accommodations are actually designed to prevent danger. The hostels are supposed to offer protection and are intended as a short-term, temporary solution. That hasn’t worked for a long time. People stay in these hostels for years, don’t get out, and live in conditions that are sometimes not humane and don’t offer any privacy.
In addition, these accommodations cost a lot of money: 35 to 50 euros per night with a shared bathroom, a shared kitchen, often in a double room. You can work out how much all of this costs. If those affected work, they have to use a large part of their income for such accommodation – that is incomprehensible. The fact that this homeless assistance system is no longer up to date is detrimental to the people affected by the situation.
Where would you see the money that Berlin is currently investing in the homeless assistance system better spent?
It must become attractive to rent apartments to disadvantaged people. The city of Berlin is currently spending an incredible amount of money on forms of housing that are not appropriate and not humane, where there is no privacy. Instead, the city should now invest more money to encourage people to move into apartments in order to reduce the high costs of accommodation.
As frustrating as the situation is sometimes, would you say that you still enjoy your job?
When I did my first internship at a homeless shelter, I thought to myself: this is exactly what you studied for! These are the people who fall through the cracks and can’t get back up on their own. The reason I still enjoy it is simply because it is very challenging. You have to work very creatively. Because the situations of the people who come to us don’t fit into any legal code. And that’s where you have to start thinking creatively: how can we manage to offer them help anyway?
Thank you for the interview.
The interview was conducted by Anja Herr.
Broadcast: rbb24 evening show, 11.09.2024, 19:30
