Schulz crosses the street to the streetcar stop. His second shift doesn’t start until 3 p.m., and then he has to spend seven hours cleaning glass windows and floors. For the time in between he goes home.
Whereby that with the home is such a thing. Schulz has been homeless since September 2019. Temporarily he lives in a one-room apartment of Caritas. He works full time as a glass and building cleaner, he does not earn badly. But he can’t find his own place to stay.
Just a moment. The other day, when it was about refugees, it was still said #WeHavePlace. Bring it on. This was also chanted in Berlin. The TAZ has also taken this position, for example here and here.
What then? Now do we have space or do we not have? Was the #WeHavePlace just a lie?
No apartment despite work – Christian Schulz is not the only one in this situation. The Federal Working Group for Assistance to the Homeless collects figures on homeless people in Germany every year. The current report has been published by the federation this Thursday. According to the report, the percentage of homeless people who are employed has nearly doubled in the past decade: in 2009, 6 percent of homeless people in Germany had a job. In 2019, it was already 11.7 percent. A development that representatives of the homeless assistance from different regions of Germany confirm in conversation.
Achievement must be rewarded, it is often said. But what if this is not true, if you are working and still cannot lead a good, independent life?? From the US we know stories of people who have several jobs and have to live in a trailer. Is there now also in Germany this form of the “working poor?
I do not believe that the situation is comparable to that in the U.S.
Because first of all, the USA is an area country, they really have a lot of space.
Secondly, there are far fewer apartment blocks and far more single-family homes in the USA.
Thirdly, homes in the USA are (or were) much cheaper than here, because there are much fewer building regulations and the houses there usually consist only of a few wooden slats, some plaster and a few roof tiles. A friend of mine has built there and showed me photos of the “shell”: A primitive wooden framework, in which the electrician simply bored a few holes as he saw fit and pulled the cables through in a free-hanging garland shape. The buddy had to photograph this, so that he knows after covering the walls still, where the power lines run and he may not drill. And you don’t need a heater in many states in the USA either, a fan heater for a few cold days is enough. They do not have a cellar either.
The problem in the U.S. is rather that too many people are unable or unwilling to work a regular day. The reality is that in many areas entire streets are empty and in disrepair. Which also has to do with the fact that there the mortgage law is different and the mortgage sticks to the house and not to the owner. If people feel over-indebted or no longer have any desire to buy, they can simply move out and deposit the house key at the bank and are rid of the house, but usually also of all house-related financial worries. Many choose this. Whether they’ll get another one and still be considered creditworthy is another question. But there is a huge supply of huge mobile homes and caravans, because that is part of the culture there. That is why many choose old used mobile homes or caravans instead of houses.
By the way, there are also millionaires who live in a luxury mobile home and have no permanent home. Such which you can pull apart in both directions.
Isn’t it more of a problem that those who work can’t find housing because we have given far too many apartments to those who don’t work?
I do not have the numbers now by heart in my head, but Berlin lives to a frighteningly high part of Hartz IV and never works. Then the population consists to a considerable part, don’t know more exactly, actually nobody knows exactly, so maybe one third of migrants. Who also occupy all the apartments.
And then you wonder why the apartments are scarce?
Why not distribute #WeHavePlace stickers to people looking for apartments and not finding them?