Action Alliance against Housing Shortage and Urban Degradation, Newsletter 135
Rally “We don’t want to lose our home! Submit a building application and prevent homelessness!” April 29, 2023, Im Hasengarten 11, Cologne-Hahnwald.
About our rally for the tenants of the house Wallstraße 31 in Cologne-Mülheim, many reported, because the scandal is simply not to grasp. Tenants are being asked by the city of Cologne, where there is a housing shortage, to vacate their apartments because the landlord has failed to have the former hotel converted into a normal apartment building. That should have happened 11 years ago when the oldest tenant signed his lease. The last buyer of the house apparently didn’t do that either.
Express
https://www.express.de/koeln/koeln-wohnhaus-ohne-baugenehmigung-mieter-sollen-raus-556054
WDR Local Time Cologne
https://www1.wdr.de/fernsehen/lokalzeit/koeln/videos/video-stadt-koeln-setzt-mieterinnen-einer-ehemaligen-kneipe-vor-die-tuer—100.html
Focus:
https://www.focus.de/panorama/welt/brief-von-stadt-schockt-mieter-koelner-wusste-nicht-dass-er-13-jahre-illegal-in-seiner-wohnung-lebte_id_191621226.html
SAT1
https://www.sat1nrw.de/aktuell/wohungsrauswurf-mann-lebt-jahrelang-in-kneipe-234553
Michael Scheffer to the rally on 22. 4.2023 in the Wallstraße:
Many thanks to the supporters of Wolfgang and his neighbors who came to the vigil in Mülheim on Saturday. A very important sign was set that the actions of the city against its residents can not be accepted. If there are structural or legal problems, then these must be solved and not the tenants asked to leave their apartments. The fact that the city of Cologne has been missing its goals in the area of new construction for years by miles is bad enough. But the fact that the city is now going and actively reducing the stock is completely unacceptable.
We had made a similar case in Beethovenstrasse a few weeks ago the subject of a briefing session in the district council, which would also have to be examined for Mülheim. Here is a short summary:
https://die-linke-koeln.de/2023/02/bezirksvertretung-innenstadt-diskutiert-verdraengungen/
Kalle Gerigk: We meet before the domicile of one of the two houseowners of the Wallstrasse 31.
Come nevertheless times there where the simple life does not take place. Into the villa quarter Hahnwald. We meet at the address: Im Hasengarten 11, 50996 Cologne.
We should make sure that we are noticed with thriller pipes, cooking pots and everything that makes noise.
See you on Saturday!
Christa Schliebs has started a petition for the tenants of Wallstraße 31:
https://www.change.org/p/keine-verdr%C3%A4ngung-v-mieterinnen-und-mietern-der-wallstr-31-in-k%C3%B6ln-m%C3%BClheim?
“Debts related to health insurance premiums among homeless people”.
We learned what this is all about right at the beginning of our storytelling workshop with prisoners without a fixed abode in the JVA Ossendorf. One participant was released with 36,000 euros in debts to the health insurance company, another with 20,000 euros. No isolated cases:
According to the Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Wohnungslosenhilfe (BAG-W – Federal Association for Assistance to the Homeless), almost one-sixth of homeless people were without health insurance in 2020. As a result, medical care is usually only sought when there is emergency treatment or a serious worsening of the health condition. If the affected person is then re-registered with a health insurance company, he or she must deal directly with the contribution debts. These arise because contributions would also have to be paid during the period without health insurance coverage and the health insurance company charges these amounts upon re-registration.
The Central Counseling Center of Lower Saxony has invited to the symposium “Debts in connection with health insurance contributions among homeless people” on April 27, 2023.
Those who missed the symposium and are interested in the topic can order the documentation from the organizers:
maren.becker@diakonie-nds.de and friederike.lueers@diakonie-nds.de
To read
Out for May 1: Expropriation – socialization.
“In 2019, there were about 200 expropriation procedures, mainly for roads or coal mining. This expropriation is considered legitimate. In Berlin, the expropriation debate is extremely charged, with conservatives claiming that expropriation is Gulag and Stalinism. But when the state expropriates for coal mining or highways, you hear nothing.”
How did private property actually come to be? Why do we take it for granted that the vast majority are property-less? And how do we get out of this thinking? Political scientist Sabine Nuss clarifies.
https://www.woz.ch/2317/woerterkunde/der-begriff-enteignung-gibt-der-wut-ein-ventil/!SW7ZFSJC5B0Y
Rental housing: A market as broken as it is unfair
Apartment prices have been rising for years. More and more of them belong to institutional landlords with huge investment assets. The housing market is complex – its effect is not: redistribution upward.
https://www.woz.ch/2317/mietwohnungen/ein-markt-so-kaputt-wie-ungerecht/!GBP0EBBD3QXQ
broadcasts, messages, news
Radio North Pole on OMZ
https://radio.nrdpl.org/2023/04/25/radio-nordpol-in-koeln-on-air-yeah-folge-1/
Can Otto Normalbürger still afford Munich?
Apple’s investment plans for a chip center in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, have sparked discussions about the pressure this may put on the housing market. Do large companies have a duty to provide housing for their employees?
https://www.gmx.net/magazine/wirtschaft/bringt-apple-neubau-muenchner-mietmarkt-durcheinander-38145964
Vonovia sells 21,000 residential units
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/vonovia-128.html
Analysis of data from Berlin
Supply of affordable housing for normal earners plummeted
https://www.rbb24.de/wirtschaft/beitrag/2023/04/wohnungsnot-mittlere-einkommen-berlin-foerderpolitik-mieten.html
Social housing construction in NRW
https://opal.landtag.nrw.de/portal/WWW/dokumentenarchiv/Dokument/MMD18-4081.pdf
Minister Geywitz in the housing crisis: read Friedrich Engels!
The Minister of Construction stands out with proposals that show helplessness. It would be better if she kept a promise in the coalition agreement.
https://www.taz.de/!5926360
Exhibition on Nazi architecture: Germany, a unified camp country
The show “Macht Raum Gewalt” at Berlin’s Akademie der Künste shows: Under National Socialism, barracks were built primarily for forced laborers.
https://taz.de/Ausstellung-ueber-NS-Architektur/!5926402/
Tenants foot the bill
German Tenants’ Association criticizes building energy law. Coalition plans only provide for owner subsidies
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/449401.w%C3%A4rmewende-mieter-zahlen-die-zeche.html
Dates
Apr. 29, 2023, 11 a.m., rally “We don’t want to lose our home! Apply for a building permit and prevent homelessness!” , Im Hasengarten 11, Cologne-Hahnwald
1. May 2023, 12 o’clock demo from Böcklerplatz, 13 o’clock rally Heumarkt
03.05. – 11.06.2023 Exhibition Poetry of the Street – Photography by Peter Ruthardt
Vernissage: Wednesday, 03.05. / 19.30 clock, Location: Art and culture local Alte Feuerwache
Melchiorstraße 3 – 50670 Cologne / Agnesviertel
04.05.2023 from 14:00 to approx. 18:30 Poverty? Abolish – Action Congress
05.05.2023 from 10:00 to ca. 16:00 Poverty? Abolish – Action congress
https://www.der-paritaetische.de/presse-und-kampagnen/armutabschaffen/aktionskongress-armutabschaffen-2023/#c19767
08.05.2023, 19:00, Right to the City, Open Meeting. Old fire station
11.05.2023, 6 p.m., Hearing on the interim use in the Otto-Langen-Quartier, MüZe
https://97dd9b6e-8b8e-47cc-9d6f-01592ee4eba6.usrfiles.com/ugd/97dd9b_f76c0b1dcf434d868bcd8d53904a1cbc.pdf
13.05.2023, 12 p.m., Talk in Public – Search for an apartment, Rudolfplatz, Cologne
www.angiehiesl-rolandkaiser.de
05/16/2023, 3:30 p.m., Council
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
April 29, 2023
Klaus Jünschke and Rainer Kippe
https://wohnungsnot.koeln
PS
Call for donations
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Donation account MachMit! e.V. IBAN: DE53370501981011342704
Intended purpose: Aktionsbündnis
Translated with DeepL
