Action Alliance against Housing Shortage and Urban Degradation, Newsletter 120
Lockable single rooms for all those living on the street
At the end of the year, two homeless people died in the Vorgebirgsstraße emergency shelter.
Only report-k reported on it: “Two deaths in one day: Südstadt facility causes concern”.
https://www.report-k.de/zwei-todesfaelle-an-einem-tag-suedstadt-einrichtung-bereitet-sorgen/
The social administration has commissioned the Society for Innovative Social Research and Social Planning (Gesellschaft für innovative Sozialforschung und Sozialplanung, GISS) to conduct a survey on the living situation of homeless and houseless people in Cologne and to develop recommendations for action so that Cologne’s assistance system can be more needs-based.
However, the Cologne City Council must also examine for itself whether it was a good decision to outsource the responsibility for accommodating homeless and homeless people in emergency shelters to the independent providers such as SKM and SKF in order to save money. The little money for staff and the multi-bed rooms led to the decision to hang out the doors of the rooms in the emergency shelters in view of the violence among the residents and the many thefts. In order to control assaults among the homeless, the providers themselves became assaultive by practising this accommodation in multi-bed rooms with unhinged doors without privacy.
Instead of putting an end to this misery and concentrating all efforts and resources on housing all homeless people in lockable single rooms and flats, the social administration under Prof. Dr. Harald Rau has decided to lower the access barriers to this inhumane help system in order to strengthen the acceptance of the existing offers.
https://buergerinfo.stadt-koeln.de/getfile.asp?id=733280&type=do
A report in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger about the new boss in the Johanneshaus said: “200 men live in the Johanneshaus. Each has a room of about 15 square metres.” And: “29 social workers and social education workers alone look after the residents of the house and the 150 men who are accommodated in the assisted living of the Johanneshaus in Cologne.”
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/koelner-innenstadt/altstadt-sued/koelner-johanneshaus-monika-scholz-ist-neue-chefin-389125
29 professionals for 350 housed men. A ratio of 1:7. The 50 homeless people with a future (OMZ) in Gummersbacher Straße were granted a social worker who stands in front of the house twice a week in his minibus for two hours. And their conflicts and problems have been communicated audibly to the public.
While villas in Marienburg have been empty for years:
Lindenallee 27 (for 17 years), Lindenallee 60 (for 9 years), Tiberiusstraße 6 (for 12 years), Parkstraße 6 and Parkstraße 8 (also for years).
And the poorest in the city go to jail for pill-popping offences.
Where can homeless people stay with their dogs?
At the Harburg-Huus
We offer a safe place to stay, security and company in the day centre and a wide range of help. Dogs are allowed!
https://www.harburg-huus.de/
With the street angels in Hanau
Homeless people with dogs have access to the StrassenEngel house.
Emergency sleeping places with dogs are also available.
Food for the dogs is available.
https://www.strassenengel.org/
In Nuremberg in the QuarTier
In the Johanniter shelter “QuarTier”, homeless people can find a safe place to stay together with their beloved dogs and can move into single or couple rooms.
https://www.johanniter.de/juh/lv-bayern/rv-mittelfranken/unsere-standorte-einrichtungen-in-mittelfranken/detailseite/unterkunft-quartier-3436/
And in Cologne?
For years, the public has been told that homeless people have to part with their dogs at night if they want to get a bed at Winterhilfe:
“This year, the Cologne Animal Welfare Association in Cologne-Zollstock is again offering overnight accommodation for dogs belonging to homeless people. The focus is particularly on people who spend the night in the regulatory accommodation in Vorgebirgstraße. Ten places per night are available for dogs. The dog owners can bring the dogs in the evening until 6 pm or between 8 pm and 9 pm. The dogs spend the night in a heated kennel and are provided with food and water. Each morning from 7am, the dogs can be collected again.”
https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presse/mitteilungen/21110/index.html
Although not a single homeless person brought his dog to the Zollstock animal shelter last year, 10 kennels for homeless dogs were again reserved there with publicity effect.
https://www.report-k.de/winterhilfe-fuer-obdachlose-wird-das-angebot-der-hunde-unterbringung-genutzt/
In the TAZ Esther Geißlinge had devoted herself to the topic on 7 January 2023:
“Dogs must stay outside”
https://taz.de/Archiv-Suche/!5903539&s=Esther%2BGei%C3%9Flinger&SuchRahmen=Print/
If we want something to change, we have to do something.
That is why we are calling for two rallies:
Rally on Tuesday 17.01.2023 at 08:00 in Cologne Porz, Frankenplatz 1, 51149, we protest against the eviction of the Winands family of six with five children between 2 and 10 years, one of whom is severely disabled.
Rally on Thursday, 19.01.2023 at 15h on Theo-Burauen-Platz for the meeting of the social committee of the city of Cologne.
We demand: “An flat for the Winands family” and: HOUSING FOR ALL. Costumes, music and songs welcome.
Im Ferkulum 8 – Against cold eviction
Our rally on 22 December 2022, which we reported on in Newsletter 117, made a difference for Mrs. K and her son.
https://www.wohnungsnot.koeln/rundbrief-117-vom-23-dezember-2022/
We were told from the Housing Department that in addition to the Housing Department, the Building Inspection Department and the Department of Urban Development and Statistics are also involved:
“It has been determined that planning permission is not required for the refurbishment / modernisation of the existing flats and hallway.
The Office for Urban Development and Statistics is examining the situation in terms of preservation law on the basis of the social preservation statutes for the Severinsviertel.
The Office for Housing will hold an on-site meeting with the owner of the property in January to get a comprehensive overview of the current status of the renovation work and to clarify open questions.”
There should be a new status report at the end of January. We will stay tuned.
RIDDLE
Tenants’ association fears “unimagined disaster on the housing market”.
https://www.report-k.de/mieterbund-fuerchtet-ungeahntes-desaster-auf-dem-wohnungsmarkt/
We ask you all for your help:
In 1973, 714,000 dwellings were completed in the old Federal Republic of Germany
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/manuskript-das-ende-der-wohnungszwangswirtschaft-per-gesetz.media.609061d15cda13794adc621e380590ed.pdf
Since probably 90,000 flats were built in the GDR in the same year, that was a total of 800,000 – twice as many as the traffic lights set out to build 50 years later.
In these 50 years, productivity has also increased in the construction industry: with fewer people, more can be built today – and better.
Which experts can explain to us why not even 400,000 flats can be built today?
Those of you who can’t think of an answer can perhaps ask architects or builders.
We have to find the answer. Or do we have to ask Jan Böhmermann to take over?
Background:
Andrej Holm: Housing policy in a dead end.
Federal government’s new-build alliance without new impulses
Evaluations of microcensus data have revealed a social supply deficit for 4.4 million households living in too small or too expensive flats in the big cities alone in 2018.
The federal government’s “Affordable Housing Alliance” aims to achieve unrealistic goals with the wrong instruments.
In such alliances, the state becomes an instrument of private interests. The current challenges need exactly the opposite approach: a clear political formulation of the public interest, the development of possible strategies and instruments, and only then the establishment of suitable support structures for implementation.
https://www.bmgev.de/mieterecho/archiv/2022/me-single/article/wohnungspolitik-in-der-sackgasse/
New Year’s Eve
The urban sociologist Talja Blokland sees the causes for the acts of violence not in the migration background of the suspects but in the too-small flats in which they had to live cramped in the Corona years. She is therefore surprised that so few young people went on the rampage.
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/mensch-metropole/berlin-interview-krawalle-gewalt-expertin-stadtsoziologin-talja-blokland-humboldt-universitaet-zur-silvesternacht-keine-ueberraschung-dass-es-jetzt-knallt-li.303845
Oliver Nachtwey in the FAZ: “But social problems are concentrated in districts like Neukölln: difficult and cramped housing conditions, poverty, exclusion, stigmatisation of groups, broken schools.”
https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/silvester-in-berlin-erklaerungsansaetze-der-sozialwissenschaft-18594913.html
From the history of homeless self-organisations
2010: Stefan Schneider: Participation, self-help and self-organisation of homeless people.
https://www.drstefanschneider.de/images/dokumente_allgemein/schneider_partizipation_kassel_2010.pdf
Homeless meetings 2019 to 2021
http://wohnungslosentreffen.de/
Homeless meeting 2022
https://wohnungslosentreffen.org/
Programme of the Homeless Meeting 2022
https://wohnungslosentreffen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Wohnungslosentreffen-Freistatt-2022_Programm_Stand_2022-08-13_web.pdf
To read
Andrej Holm, Mathias Bernt: Socialisation lowers the rent
https://www.rosalux.de/publikation/id/49757
“Entmietet” und verdrängt werden – a qualitative study on dealing with flat terminations in the course of structural upgrading and densification.
For the first time, substantial knowledge about the problem of displacement in the course of structural developments from the perspective of those affected.
https://www.ost.ch/de/projekt/entmietetund-verdraengt-werden-eine-qualitative-studie-zum-umgang-mit-wohnungskuendigungen-im-zuge-von-baulichen-aufwertungen-und-verdichtungenakronym-wohnsog-28
Affected by gentrification.
An exemplary contribution to questions of qualitative displacement research.
https://zeitschrift-suburban.de/sys/index.php/suburban/article/view/618/936#content
Housing First – the Vienna Model
https://www.fsw.at/downloads/ueber-den-FSW/infos-fuer-organisationen/201210_HousingFirst_DasWienerModell_Endbericht.pdf
Programmes, reports, news
Funeral service: Düsseldorfers bid farewell to Kö-Peter
https://rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/duesseldorf/duesseldorfer-nehmen-abschied-vom-koe-peter_aid-82463281
WDR Lokalzeit reports briefly from minute 18:55 on the “New Year’s brunch with homeless people” organised by the association HiK Heimatlos in Cologne with its committed team after a three-year break from Corona. The report is a bit short but still nice.
https://www1.wdr.de/fernsehen/lokalzeit/koeln/videos/video-lokalzeit-aus-koeln—2256.html
Creating togetherness – New Year’s brunch for the homeless in Mülheim
https://www.report-k.de/ein-miteinander-erzeugen-neujahrsbrunch-fuer-obdachlose-in-koeln-muelheim/
New Year’s brunch for homeless people in Cologne”.
Because we are ‘wild people’, we are also perceived as such”.
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/neujahrsbrunch-fuer-wohnungslose-in-koeln-neue-und-alte-probleme-389169
Outside. Homeless people are everywhere. Arte documentary. 78 minutes
https://static-cdn.arte.tv/de/videos/055204-000-A/draussen/
Vonovia: Europe’s biggest landlords are planning a series of large-scale property sales to reduce their debts in the face of rising interest rates.
https://www.handelsblatt.com/finanzen/immobilien/immobilien-wie-ein-kaeuferstreik-grosse-immobilienkonzerne-unter-druck-setzt/28843790.html
Inner cities face dramatic upheaval in many places
https://www.dihk.de/de/themen-und-positionen/wirtschaftspolitik/raumordnung-und-stadtentwicklung/innenstaedte-vielerorts-vor-dramatischem-umbruch-88408
The proper service charge settlement
https://www.anwalt.de/rechtstipps/die-ordnungsgemaesse-nebenkostenabrechnung-teil-i-207589.html
Cologne tenants’ association gains 725 new members
https://www.report-k.de/mieterverein-koeln-gewinnt-725-neue-mitglieder/
New boss at Johanneshaus
Homeless people find a home in the Vringsveedel in Cologne
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/koelner-innenstadt/altstadt-sued/koelner-johanneshaus-monika-scholz-ist-neue-chefin-389125
Dates
17.01.2023, 8 a.m. Protest rally against the eviction of the Winands family, Frankenplatz 1, 51149 Köln-Porz
17.01.2023, 7 pm Werner Rügemer: What and who is behind Blackrock? Part 1
Peace Education Centre, Obenmarspforten 7-11, 50667 Cologne
18.01.2021, 19:30, The End of Capitalism. Reading and discussion with Ulrike Herrmann. Citizens’ Centre Nippes, Alteberger Hof, Mauenheimer Str.92. VA: attac
https://www.buergerzentrum-nippes.de/veranstaltungen
19.01.2022, 15 h, Rally “Housing for all” before the meeting of the social committee, Spanischer Bau, Theo-Burauen-Platz
19.01.23, 19 – 20:30 h, Netzwerk für gemeinschaftliches Bauen und Wohnen (Network for Community Building and Housing) on a theme evening about current developments and future opportunities for community building and housing in Cologne VHS-Studienhaus am Neumarkt, Cäcilienstraße 35, room 0.06 (ground floor).
https://www.hda-koeln.de/kalender/230119_ngbw/
21.1.2023, 8 p.m., “Ithaka” – Film and discussion about the fight for Julian Assange.
Cinema 813 at the BRÜCKE, Hahnenstraße 6, 50667 Cologne, Germany
26.01.2023, 7 pm, Sharing power fairly. Karl Rahner Academy
https://www.karl-rahner-akademie.de/programm/kurs/Drei-Generationen-im-Gespraech-Macht-fair-teilen/23106
27.01.2022, 18:30-22 h, Enough is Enough. Against rising prices and social inequality. Kulturbunker Mülheim.
31.01.2023, 7 pm Werner Rügemer: What and who is behind Blackrock? Part 2
Friedensbildungswerk, Obenmarspforten 7-11, 50667 Cologne, Germany
For a city without homelessness
For a city without forced evictions
For a city without drug deaths
For a city without violence against women and children
For a city without deportations
For a city without poverty
13 January 2023
Klaus Jünschke and Rainer Kippe
https://wohnungsnot.koeln
PS
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