Action Alliance against Housing Shortage and Urban Destruction, Newsletter 127
Rally against vacancy on March 4, 2023, Deutz-Mülheimer Str.168
On Saturday, March 4, 2023 we will meet at 11 a.m. in front of the house Deutz-Mülheimer-Str. 168. On the other side of the street there should have been apartments long ago, but all that can be seen is a huge construction pit and half a shell that has not been worked on for years. We demand that the city brings the properties back into municipal ownership and commissions the GAG and cooperatives to build social housing there.
The city leadership around Mayor Reker boasts of more than 1,327 approved social housing units for the year 2022. In fact, only 334 subsidy notices for new housing units were issued. The other 993 subsidy notices are for modernizations of already existing apartments.
Michael Weisenstein, housing policy spokesman for the left-wing parliamentary group, explains:
“It is a strong piece that Oberbürgermeisterin Reker announces that the housing construction goals his been exceeded. The goal proclaimed by Mrs. Reker and its housing alliance to create at least 1,000 new social dwellings is again far missed.”
https://www.linksfraktion-koeln.de/politik-im-rat/detail/immer-weniger-bezahlbare-sozialwohnungen-stadtverwaltung-verschleiert-schlechte-zahlen/
The city has sold land to international investors who have only one interest, to make a profit with it. Zero interest in the city, zero interest in the people who live here. Yes, even CDU and Greens can “Hail to international solidarity”. If you don’t understand right away how base it was and is to open up the housing market to international profit vultures, take a look at Werner Rümeer’s current book: “Blackrock & Co, expropriate.” Nomen-Verlag.
The real estate manager reported on the Adler Group:
https://www.immobilienmanager.de/schwere-vorwuerfe-gegen-adler-group-07102021
Michael Richter and Christoph Twickel researched for six months:
Immobilienpoker – Die dubiosen Geschäfte der Adler Group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j08zsOr_VUU
Can’t stand it in the head either: the city of Cologne has signed a “Housing Pact 2025” with Vonovia:
https://www.stadt-koeln.de/politik-und-verwaltung/presse/mitteilungen/22434/index.html
About our last rally against vacancy on February 25, 2023, in front of the house Glasstr.6, the Express reported:
https://amp.express.de/koeln/koelner-aktionsbuendnis-protestiert-gegen-leerstand-in-ehrenfeld-477332
Mentally ill people without a fixed abode
The current book on the subject contains contributions by Jutta Henke and Volker Busch-Geertsema who, together with their colleagues from the Society for Innovative Social Research and Social Planning (GISS), are currently in the process of compiling a study on the situation of the homeless in Cologne.
Jutta Henke writes about the limits of the help systems and she asks: How can “system sprenger” be cared for? She concludes: “At the same time, this designation makes it difficult to perceive structures in the help system that can provoke ‘blasting’ behavior. And it suppresses the knowledge that permanent and complete exclusion from homeless assistance as the last network of social security cannot be a professional alternative… …It is a community task to prevent mentally ill homeless people from becoming destitute in the view of the assistance systems.”
Volker Busch-Geertsema, in his article on Housing-First, calls for “the intensification of all efforts to prevent housing loss” and “the application of the Housing First approach actually on a much broader scale.” His concluding sentence: “For many users, however, their own apartment and the need-based and individually tailored accompaniment services offer a good starting point for coping with these problems – freed from the daily grind of surviving homelessness – much better.” From:
Henning Daßler (ed.): Homeless and mentally ill: Psychiatrie-Verlag.
https://psychiatrie-verlag.de/product/wohnungslos-und-psychisch-erkrankt/
First ill, then homeless
The number of people who end up on the streets with severe mental illness is growing. What can be done about it?
https://taz.de/Obdachlosigkeit-in-Deutschland/!5915482&s=Wilfried+Urbe/
Street worker on homelessness: “Pure survival”.
More and more homeless people are mentally ill. Two street workers report how their non-coercive methodology is reaching its limits.
https://taz.de/Streetworker-ueber-Wohnungslosigkeit/!5915475/
Mental distress on the streets: mental illness and homelessness are often intertwined
Mental illnesses can lead to homelessness. Or they keep those affected in it.
https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wissen/seelische-not-auf-der-strasse-psychisch-erkrankt-wohnungslos-psychisch-erkrankt-111122.html
Without shelter, without support
Along with housing, people often lose their jobs and health insurance. It then becomes even harder for those affected to get the treatment they need.
90 percent of homeless people have a mental illness. But offers of help for them are rare. How one affected person nevertheless found his way back into the midst of society.
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/gesundheit/obdachlosigkeit-psychische-erkrankungen-hilfsangebote-wohnungslos-alkoholkonsum-1.5206735
The Evangelische Bundesfachverband Existenzsicherung und Teilhabe e.V. (EBET) warns against a medical-psychiatric understanding of homelessness, which was believed to have been overcome since the 1970s.
EBET counters this one-sided perspective with a multifactorial understanding: “Homelessness consists of individual factors and socio-structural conditions that are closely interrelated. The weighting of these areas varies from individual to individual, but in any case leads to a process of social exclusion.”
Finally, after an intensive examination of the SEEWOLF study, the authors state that the question of the connection between homelessness and psychiatric illness cannot be answered even with this study. Instead, her conclusion is: “Basically, mental abnormalities, addiction or even so-called disorders such as anxiety disorders should first be understood as a reaction to the conditions experienced. Also peculiarities in social behavior can and must first be seen as a consequence of life on the street. The less self-determination people have left, the more the last vestige of autonomy and dignity is defended, even if it is the right to a beer.”
https://www.ebet-ev.de/nachrichten-leser/positionierung-wohnungslosigkeit-und-psychische-erkrankung.html
For a city without violence against women and children
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the city of Cologne shares in its current newsletter:
“International Women’s Day: Strong Women. Strong Cologne.
Come to the Gürzenich on Saturday, March 11, when Cologne women’s organizations will present themselves there for International Women’s Day. At 2 p.m., Lord Mayor Henriette Reker will open the event. There will be a “Market of Opportunities”, a colorful workshop program, musical performances and the exhibition “What I’m wearing…”. It’s worth stopping by!”
On March 2, 2023, the Stadt-Anzeiger reported that there is a shortage of more than 1,000 places in women’s shelters in NRW alone: “In Cologne alone, hundreds of people seeking protection have to be turned away every year.”
“The first Cologne women’s shelter has room for 16 women and 18 children, the second accommodates ten women and 14 children. For many years, the employees have been fighting for a third women’s shelter in Cologne. The city council agreed to this in 2019, but talks with the state have been slow. It is not yet clear how many places the women’s shelter will have. What is clear is that it will not be enough. According to the Istanbul Convention, Cologne lacks something like 50 shelter places.”
Strong Cologne?
Broadcasts, reports, news
Daniel Diekmann talks to Kalle Gerigk about the situation in Berlin’s Habersaathstraße.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtMJvGydEEs
“Merhaba and meal”.
Criticism of Cologne’s homeless aid – Proximity to “Grey Wolves”?
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/kritik-an-koelner-wohnungslosenhilfe-naehe-zu-grauen-woelfen-475228
In France, squatters are to be punished more severely
Street or prison
In France, a new law is to be enacted that provides for higher penalties for squatters and places tenants in a worse position in the event of payment arrears. At the same time, there are more and more homeless people.
https://jungle.world/artikel/2023/08/strasse-oder-gefaengnis
Dates
04.03.2023, 11 o’clock, demonstration against vacancy Deutz Mülheimer Str.168
06.03.2022, 19 o’clock, right on city, open meeting, old fire station
O8.03.2023 International Women’s Day
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationaler_Frauentag
11.03.2023, 11 o’clock, Rally against vacancies
18.03.2023, 11 a.m., Rally against vacancies
23.03.2023, 3 p.m., Rally in front of the Council, Theo Burauen Platz
25.03.2023 Housing Action Day
For a city without homelessness
For a city without 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
March 3, 2023
Klaus Jünschke and Rainer Kippe
https://wohnungsnot.koeln
PS
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