Action alliance against housing shortage and urban destruction, Newsletter 177
Protest rally against vacant GAG apartments in Stammheim
17.02.2024, 11 a.m., Ricarda Huch Str.31 in front of the GAG Service Center
We cannot and will not put up with apartments and offices standing empty for months and years while people try to survive on the streets and squares of Cologne.
With a lurid title, report-k has reported on the “Cologne concept for combating homelessness”, which is circulating as a draft in the city administration.
“Concept on housing and homelessness leaked”
Homelessness is an extreme case of poverty. Anyone who seriously wants to abolish it must overcome poverty. The decision by Cologne City Council to decriminalize driving without a ticket so that poor people no longer end up in prison if they cannot pay a fine is a small step in the right direction. But it is not yet a concept for a city without poverty.
A national action plan is intended to help overcome homelessness in Germany by 2030. The country is still a long way from achieving this. The number of homeless people is growing steadily. What are the reasons for this?
You can now read and see in all the media that homelessness can be abolished if the political will is there;https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/finnland-housing-first-wie-das-land-die-obdachlosigkeit-abschafft-a-42acd6e8-2dd7-42fa-803d-f575d4e2bf9b
Lord Mayor Hans Mörtter
Lokalzeit reported it yesterday – Hans Mörtter wants to become mayor. From minute 8:50:
And today it’s in the Stadt-Anzeiger: https://www.ksta.de/koeln/koeln-ob-wahl-ex-pfarrer-moertter-will-koelner-oberbuergermeister-werden-739824
The former head of the social affairs department, Henriette Reker, as Lord Mayor, delighted the stunned audience at the Deutsche Bank New Year’s reception on January 14, 2016 with this statement: “There is no more impressive social policy than strengthening the business location.”
The result of her time in office is accordingly: while the rich in the city became richer and the poor poorer and more, the housing shortage increased – social housing became less and the homeless more.
With Hans Mörtter, Cologne would have a candidate for the office of Lord Mayor who helps where he sees need. With him, the causes of poverty could also become a topic of public debate in the city.
Keywords and agreements to eliminate homelessness
City marketing
City Marketing Cologne
Postfordism
Reporting on the homeless
EUROPEAN TYPOLOGY OF HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING EXCLUSION
European Pillar of Social Rights (ESSR)
European Platform against Homelessness
The Housing First Europe Hub
A European Platform which aims to further develop and promote Housing First in Europe
National Action Plan on Homelessness and National Forum on Homelessness
Keywords and agreements to eliminate homelessness
City marketing
City Marketing Cologne
Postfordism
Reporting on the homeless
EUROPEAN TYPOLOGY OF HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING EXCLUSION
European Pillar of Social Rights (ESSR)
European Platform against Homelessness
The Housing First Europe Hub
A European Platform which aims to further develop and promote Housing First in Europe
National Action Plan on Homelessness and National Forum on Homelessness
Care Leaver
To read
The second destruction of Germany.
Guido Lauen: City and control.
Review by Günter Stummvoll
http://www.lauen.org/pdf/Rezension%20Stadt%20und%20Kontrolle%20SWS.pdf
Katrin Schmidt: Urban planning and crime
Broadcasts, Reports, News
Sentiment in German housing construction falls to historic low
The government’s annual target of 400,000 new homes has long been a distant prospect. Now the outlook for the housing construction industry for the coming months is gloomier than ever.
Almost starved to death on Sylt – how could this happen?
It’s an extraordinary case: the head of the Sylt food bank, a pastor and a doctor work together to rescue a 93-year-old woman from a homeless shelter in Westerland, presumably saving her life.
Because the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Interior cannot reach an agreement, there is no amendment to tenancy law. Many tenants therefore fear for their future.
According to the German Economic Institute (IW), an average of 40,000 social housing units will be lost every year in Germany by 2035
A court in Hong Kong has ordered the liquidation of Evergrande, China’s highly indebted second-largest real estate group. The crisis in the construction sector shows that the Chinese state’s usual methods of dealing with economic problems are working less and less.
https://jungle.world/artikel/2024/07/china-krise-bausektor-evergrande-vom-boom-bleiben-die-ruinen
For years, real estate prices have only gone in one direction: steeply upwards. Recently, however, the downward trend has been just as rapid. There is much to suggest that the market is just taking a break. This is more apparent when renting than when buying.
Dates
17.02.2024, 11 a.m. Protest against GAG vacancy, Ricarda Huch Str.31
17.02.2024, 2 pm, NRW-wide peace demonstration on the Alter Markt
19.02.2024, 17:30, Do we need a qualified rent index? Deutz community center
20.02.2024, 19:30, Reading “Trapped & Homeless”, BiBaBuZe bookshop
20.02.2024, 19:30, Does a housing corporation have to work profit-oriented? The Left, Spanish Building, Rathausplatz 1, Room B027
21.02.2024, 8 p.m., Head of Social Affairs Rau: Homelessness in Cologne – an inventory and perspectives. 7th municipal political forum of the Greens in the Ehrenfeld community center
22-24.02.2024 Fragile dwellings. Precarious housing and homelessness in times of multiple crises. Nuremberg
29.02.2024, 15:30 Social Committee
29.02.2024, 7 p.m., Driving without a ticket and substitute custodial sentence. With Nicole Bögelein and Thomas Münch, Maxhaus, Schulstr.11, 40213 Düsseldorf
21.03.2024, 15:30, Council
01-07.04.2023 Housing Acion Week 2024
23-25.04.2024 Conference for homeless people “On the growth of street homelessness and the search for good solutions” at Maternushaus Cologne
03.05.2024, 10 am – 5 pm Practical workshop at TH Köln: “Between empowerment, advocacy and powerlessness: Political representation of interests by social work and self-organizations of people affected by poverty”
07-09.06.2024 The 10th Right to the City Forum in Berlin
10-11.06.2024 Assisted living after release from prison. Ehrenfeld community center
11.09.2024 Day of the homeless
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
February 17, 2024
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, March 4, 2024 at 7 pm at “Recht auf Stadt Köln” in the open meeting place of the Bürgerzentrum Alte Feuerwache
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
