Action alliance against housing shortage and urban destruction, Newsletter 168
A warm Christmas for the homeless and those seeking housing
Demonstration against the vacancy of GAG apartments in Stammheim-Süd
Saturday, December 16, 2023 from Ricarda Huch Str.31 to Elias Gut Straße 17
Under the chairmanship of Sandra Weeser (FDP), the Bundestag Committee on Housing, Urban Development, Construction and Municipalities held a public expert discussion on the topic of “Homelessness and homeless assistance” on December 11, 2023.
The expert discussion is already available in the Bundestag media library:
A summary was published in the parliamentary news on 12.12.2023
There was no mention of the causes of the housing shortage.
While winter aid is the order of the day everywhere and Hinz&Kunzt reported on the first deaths from the cold, emergency aid was not an issue. There was no voice, like that of Kai Hauprich from Vringstreff, who scandalized in the DRAUSSENSEITER interview that we are watching the homeless die.
How can you start an expert discussion on homelessness without talking about the 50,000 homeless people’s struggle to survive? Their life expectancy is 30 years below the national average. Almost every day we read and hear about acts of violence against them, and because the housing shortage affects them the most, also about violence among themselves. They are the most overrepresented social group in the 172 prisons in Germany.
There was no mention of vacant apartments, office buildings and stores, nor of the possibility of immediately accommodating all homeless people in lockable single rooms
The committee’s MEPs have been to Finland to see Housing First. Finland wants to be a country without homelessness by 2027. And yet some people were chattering “Housing First is not the solution for everything”.
State Secretary Sören Bartol left no doubt at the end that the traffic lights are not thinking of abolishing homelessness by 2030. As a consolation, he announced: “But we will be on the right track.”
You still have to listen to it so that it doesn’t happen again in the city council on February 4, 2024.
On Saturday, December 16 at 11 a.m., we are standing in front of the building at Ricarda-Huch-Str. 31 to go to Elias Gut Strasse. There are over 50 empty GAG apartments there. In the blocks of apartments, only the doors of the empty apartments are to be unlocked and only the heaters are to be turned on.
How else can we change the fact that we watch the homeless die or that they are “part of the cityscape”?
Appeal for donations
Dear ALL,
Since the eviction of the OMZ in Gummersbacher Straße at the end of May, a group of former residents have been camping out in tents on the meadow between the AZ and the district court.
Abandoned by the social welfare administration on various occasions, they are now struggling with the cold, wet and bad weather.
We are appealing for donations to support the homeless people: The most urgent need is for measures to protect those affected and their tents against the cold, wet and wind – such as winter sleeping bags (down to -20/-30°C), sleeping mats, hot water bottles, tools and materials to underpin and insulate the tents.
We would like to ask you for donations – every Euro helps, every help counts!
DONATION ACCOUNT
OMZ – Homeless people with a future
IBAN: DE92 3705 0198 1935 7606 35
Sparkasse Cologne-Bonn
WiesenBewohner*innen, OMZ e.V. and supporters
No to rent increases – Initiative Köln-Stammheim
We document the petition of the Cologne-Stammheim Initiative:
GAG announced a profit of €23 million in May 2023 – rents will rise significantly this year.
GAG Immobilien AG has implemented rent increases in many cases and announced further ones. In doing so, GAG is making full use of the legal framework and demanding up to 15% more rent per square meter.
We would like to express our deep concern and criticism of the recent and upcoming rent increases.
Read more here: https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/nein-zur-mieterhoehung-2
Tenant protection
The nationwide campaign Mietenstopp stood in front of the Federal Ministry of Justice on December 8, 2023 to protest against the lack of reforms to strengthen tenant protection promised in the coalition agreement of the Ampel.
Read more
Europe-wide survey on housing policy. Solving the housing crisis – but how? https://www.goethe.de/prj/jad/de/the/hou/25233836.html
Refugee policy positions of the Cologne Refugee Council
Interview with spokespersons from agisra and Rom e.V.
There is a lack of single rooms
Right-wing culture wars are booming. Law and order threatens the foundations of democracy. The unresolved crises are piling up and casting long shadows. What are the monsters of our time? And how do we counter them?
“Boom and crisis of housing groups”
Using the example of the listed housing group VONOVIA SE
MieterEcho December 2023: Feudal instead of social.
City center of the future to become a refuge for the rich
New study: super-rich own 1.4 trillion euros
Read more here: https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/nein-zur-mieterhoehung-2
Tenant protection
The nationwide Mietenstopp campaign stood in front of the Federal Ministry of Justice on December 8, 2023 to protest against the lack of reforms to strengthen tenant protection promised in the coalition agreement of the Ampel coalition.
To read
Europe-wide survey on housing policy. Solving the housing crisis – but how? https://www.goethe.de/prj/jad/de/the/hou/25233836.html
Refugee policy positions of the Cologne Refugee Council
Interview with spokespersons from agisra and Rom e.V.
There is a lack of single rooms
Right-wing culture wars are booming. Law and order threatens the foundations of democracy. The unresolved crises are piling up and casting long shadows. What are the monsters of our time? And how do we counter them?
“Boom and crisis of housing groups”
Using the example of the listed housing group VONOVIA SE
MieterEcho December 2023: Feudal instead of social.
City center of the future to become a refuge for the rich
New study: super-rich own 1.4 trillion euros
Broadcasts, Reports, News
Homeless man killed in Vienna: 17-year-old speaks of aggression as motive
Bremerhaven tenants fight back against real estate company
More homeless people – A victim in Cologne calls for more targeted help
Homelessness in Germany – Interview with Richard Brox
WDR 5 Curiosity is enough – Talk time. 07.12.2023. 26:20 min. available until 06.12.2024. WDR5
More than 45,000 homeless people in Germany are known by name. The number of unreported cases is many times higher. Richard Brox was one of them for thirty years. Today, he looks after homeless people who are seriously ill in hospices or hospitals. Moderator: Ralph Erdenberger.
29th session of the Cologne Council: Fare dodging on the KVB is to be decriminalized
Real estate crisis at Signa: The Wunderwuzzi and his crash
The Austrian businessman René Benko has gambled away. This could have serious repercussions beyond his empire.
City’s housing offensive picks up speed
Housing construction costs in Germany higher than in other EU countries
Organizing housing in a climate-friendly way
Prices for residential property in Cologne collapse – this has an impact on rents
Dates
16.12.2023, 11 a.m., Protest demonstration against the GAG vacancy in Stammheim-Süd, start Ricarda-Huch-Str.31
16.12.2023, 2 pm, I am affected by poverty, Breslauer Platz https://www.ksta.de/koeln/ichbinarmutsbetroffen-diese-koelner-geben-armut-ein-gesicht-175107
18.01.2024, 3:30 pm, Committee for Social Affairs
27.01.2024, 6 – 7:30 pm, Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Nazis. Antonite Church
05.02.2024, 7 p.m., “M’r welle en neu Stadt baue”, Historical Archive, Eifelwall
06.02.2023, 15.30, Council
For a city without homelessness
For a city without evictions
For a city without drug-related deaths
For a city without violence against women and children
For a city without deportations
For a city without poverty
December 16, 2023
Klaus Jünschke and Rainer Kippe
PS
Appeal for donations
We need money to further improve our public relations work:
Donation account MachMit! e.V. IBAN: DE53370501981011342704
Purpose: Action alliance
To discuss further actions, we will meet on Monday, January 8, 2024 at 7 pm in the open meeting room of the Bürgerzentrum Alte Feuerwache
Translated with www.DeepL.com
