Action Alliance against Housing Shortage and Urban Degradation, Newsletter 129
Rally against displacement, March 18, 2023, 11 a.m., Kornstr.4
The home of the tenants* is in danger.
With the help of notices of own need, the landlord wants to DISMISS the house in Karl-Korn-Straße 4 in Cologne’s Südstadt and thus snatches the people from 5 apartments their home of many years.
March 16, 2023 by wh
The Anno-Riegel was once part of the Stollwerck chocolate factory and was replaced with social housing and condominiums.
The rent control for the social housing expired after 30 years at the end of 2021.
In 2020, the building was sold and individual tenants immediately received a notice of owner-occupancy. The first notice period expired at the end of April 2021. All parties are represented by lawyers.
The new owner – Overhage KK4 GBR – wants to combine five apartments.
In the process, 2 apartments on each of the first and second floors are to be combined and, together with the first floor apartment, form the new luxury apartment.
This conversion is illegal here in the milieu protection area.
With the building application, the intentionally intended breach of law was announced.
Are landlords allowed to terminate the lease for own use, even if it is based on a breach of law?
https://wohnen-wagen.de/das-zuhause-der-mieterinnen-ist-im-gefahr/
Two years ago, the Stadt-Anzeiger reported:
“District politicians have been warning for years that rent control there will expire. The squatters’ legacy: an achievement with an expiration date. “This is a huge pain,” says district mayor Andreas Hupke, Greens, on the specific case. And not to be prevented, because it is ultimately politically not wanted, so his grim conclusion.”
https://www.ksta.de/koeln/koelner-innenstadt/koelner-mieter-in-der-suedstadt-wehren-sich-gegen-kuendigung-263809
Myth of social housing
This conflict about the displacement of tenants in Karl Korn Str.4 could only arise because there was no real social housing. “Once social housing, always social housing” – that would have been real social housing. Instead of sustainable housing for low-income households, the focus has always been on economic development and private ownership.
https://eeclectic.de/produkt/die-legende-vom-sozialen-wohnungsbau/
About our demonstration against vacancy before the house Neusser Str.39, on Saturday, 11 March 2023, reported the express:
https://www.express.de/koeln/demo-vor-koelner-geisterhaus-absolutes-unding-508129
Eviction on April 13, 2023 at 10 a.m., Seidenstraße 4.
Mr. H. asked the Socialist Self-Help Mülheim for support. We will report on this in the coming newsletters. Today just an excerpt from the bailiff’s letter of March 6, 2023 in this “enforcement matter”:
“I will take possession of the property on Thursday, April 13, 2023, at 10 a.m.
Even without any further court order, I am authorized to forcibly open locked doors and receptacles as well as break any resistance with the help of the police. You will not be authorized to enter the premises after possession has been ordered.
Your placement elsewhere is not the responsibility of the bailiff. The responsible public order office has been notified of the eviction.”
NOW IT’S OUT!!!
Report by Rainer Kippe, SSM
On Tuesday evening, our social department head Dr. Rau personally met with the residents of the municipal houses in Gummersbacher Straße, where the OMZ has been temporarily stored for one and a half years, at Hans Mörtter’s house in the Lutherkirche.
About 20 residents of both sexes were present. Also present were the members of the OMZ e.V. association, who had previously met for an association meeting to discuss the further fate of the OMZ and the homeless people it cares for.
DR. RAU CAME WITH A LARGE SUITCASE
In the suitcase was a new, large and, by OMZ standards and especially in comparison with the current emergency quarters in Gummersbacher Straße, luxurious house in Winterberger Straße 9 in Merheim, which is currently still occupied by Ukrainian refugees.
Whether this house is at all suitable for a community of homeless people, we cannot judge at the moment, because the house cannot be visited at the moment. In any case, the storage halls and workshops that OMZ needs for its work and which have been promised are missing.
However, it is already clear that OMZ will not be able to determine alone in the house in Winterberger Straße, because the management will be taken over by a carrier appointed and paid by the city, preferably SKM or SKF.
THE WEAKEST REMAIN OUTSIDE THE DOOR
Harald Rau also made it clear, however, that all those who have not adhered to the house rules in the past in the accommodation in Gummersbacher Straße 25, and in particular have been involved in violence, will not be allowed into the heavenly Jerusalem. They have to stay outside. If they do not find an apartment, which is difficult in the current situation on the housing market, as Dr. Rau unapologetically acknowledged
or is probable given their previous history, then, according to Rau, the only place left for them is the municipal emergency shelter. And the lowest level, that for EU foreigners “without social entitlements”. That is a category, which invented our resourceful social experts in council and administration particularly, because according to the regulatory law there are with the regulatory accommodation for danger defense no differences in the origin of the “disturbance of the public order”, as which the homeless person is considered.
We demand: EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL HOMELESS PEOPLE
All have the same right to decent housing, and in Cologne that is a lockable single room according to the decision of the Social Committee in January 21 and the Council in April 2021.
A more detailed statement follows.
Order must be.
Winter assistance of the city of Cologne for homeless people who do not want to go to the emergency shelters.
The SPD asked questions about the evacuation of the homeless camp in Kalk on Dec. 8, 2022.
https://buergerinfo.stadt-koeln.de/getfile.asp?id=914831&type=do
And city director Andrea Blome answered:
https://buergerinfo.stadt-koeln.de/getfile.asp?id=918696&type=do
Broadcasts, messages, news
Portugal lacks affordable housing. Now the socialist government under António Costa is taking action with the “More Housing” program.
https://taz.de/Steigende-Mieten-in-Portugal/!5922309/
Unchecked into a rental shortage
Rents in NRW rose even more in 2022 than in previous years. NRW Construction Minister Scharrenbach nevertheless rejects tightening the rent brake.
https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/landespolitik/mietpreise-steigerung-mietpreisbremse-nrw-100.html
After raid at Vonovia: Tenants’ association criticizes lack of transparency at the real estate group. An interview with André Juffern
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/446780.wohnungswirtschaft-das-gesch%C3%A4ftsmodell-ist-schon-lange-undurchsichtig.html
“Still know too little about queer homelessness”.
Queers tend to be overlooked in homeless assistance facilities. The Berlin initiative queerhome is trying to improve the situation in the capital – and generate knowledge.
https://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=44934
Housing industry fears “infinitely expensive forced renovations
https://www.report-k.de/wohnungswirtschaft-fuerchtet-unendlich-teure-zwangssanierungen/
Dates
18.03.2023, 11 o’clock, rally against vacancy, Kornstr.4
19.03.2023, 14 o’clock, demo planning against Vonovia & Co., in the KoFabrik, Stühmeyerstr.33, 44787 Bochum
23.03.2023, 3 p.m., Rally in front of the council, Theo Burauen Platz
25.03.2023, 11 a.m., Rally against vacancy, Friedrich-Engels-Str.7
25.03.2023 Housing Action Day
29.03.2023, 7pm, Housing and housing policy in Cologne. DGB House Cologne
21.04.2023. 13 – 15 Uhr Digital Workshop: Providing for people from other EU countries without social benefit entitlements in Germany. Registration via link
https://ssl-sug.carinet.de/slus/anmeldeseite-kagw-21-04-23-versorgung-von-menschen-aus-dem-eu-ausland-ohne-sozialleistungsansprueche-in-deutschland
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 18, 2023
Klaus Jünschke and Rainer Kippe
https://wohnungsnot.koeln
PS
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Translated with DeepL
