Homelessness in Germany - What if you can’t afford a home? | DW Documentary

[Music] i don't think anybody in our society should have to live like this up to one million people in germany are considered homeless many have jobs and seem to live normal lives but at night they hide away in vans garages or cellars nobody talks about it how can you not feel alone they can't afford homes of their own homelessness is an issue that has long since reached the heart of german society when we are on social if we don't change our social structure these numbers are going to skyrocket problem can't be solved with the social housing system we have currently the state has been ignoring the problem for decades most homeless people are alone in their plight [Music] sometimes i feel sad i never imagined that i would become homeless i worked hard for 45 years i don't want to be labeled as homeless and be treated as such i just want to be treated as the person i am 100 how is it possible that more and more people can't afford a home despite having a job or a pension [Music] not many people experiencing homelessness want to talk about their situation but caro is willing the 73 year old pensioner was forced to vacate her flat when the owner reclaimed it for personal use a garage has become her makeshift home this is illegal but cairo cannot find anything affordable with her dogs she walks around the city by day until it gets dark she fears the neighbours will discover her it was i have to stay alert at all times to make sure people don't notice that i disappear inside all right and then don't come back out living in a garage is forbidden i would get into real trouble how long has it been winter this is my second winter i never imagined that i would become homeless i've always worked and made sure we got by the chance of getting an apartment here that i can afford is really very slim if i spent my whole pension on it i would have nothing left over to buy food and drink so that's not an option i think it's pretty insulting that i was told i first have to put the dogs in an animal shelter and then there might be somewhere for me to live there might there's not even a guarantee there'd be a place for me and the dogs are like my children my babies i'm not giving them away homeless women are less visible to the public yet they're estimated to make up around a quarter of those experiencing homelessness many tried to hide their struggles out of shame including cairo people can't tell that i'm homeless i talk to them normally and they don't realize and it's a bit embarrassing to talk about you feel ashamed to be homeless but i don't let it get me down just because i'm homeless it's not like i don't laugh or anything like that on the contrary i'd like to laugh for a lot longer you [Music] more and more people are becoming homeless in germany including many refugees estimates show the number of people experiencing homelessness has been rising steadily since 2008. according to germany's federal association for assistance to homeless people it may have reached nearly a million we set out to meet these often invisible people and accompany them to their hidden refuges [Music] a social worker from a charity tied to germany's protestant churches takes us to a campsite that's where we meet 39 year old sasha who's just finished work good evening half a year ago sasha's life was turned upside down and he lost his home i was in a relationship for 16 years and then we broke up the place belonged to her so i had to look for somewhere new to live i can't go into a homeless shelter because i have my cat and i won't give him up so i thought first i'd camp it was still warm outside why would you say that the situation has lasted so long because first i was busy looking for a job which was more important i found a temp agency that i'm happy with [Music] sasha has been working shifts for a window manufacturer since september it pays enough for him to live here he can't find a flat that he can afford how are the evenings as it gets colder you get used to the fact that there's nothing out here how is it possible that people like sasha who have a job cannot afford an apartment and why is so little being done to help we speak to sociologist andre holm he's been researching gentrification and housing policy for years here in the wealthiest country in the european union almost one million people are without housing they have to live in makeshift arrangements or even on the street or in state-run accommodation this is a social scandal in my opinion we also have a kind of hidden homelessness the visible homelessness we see people sleeping at train stations or under bridges that's just the tip of the iceberg [Music] palm tells us that for over 20 years social groups have demanded official data be collected to assess the scale of the problem and tackle it long term and this is i'm not just saying this is a social scientist who works with a lot of figures it's a scandal that there aren't official statistics on an issue as important as homelessness why is it that there are still no official statistics we come across a 1998 study by the federal statistical office a nationwide census would have been possible at any time but the political will wasn't there finally in 2020 the bundestag decided to start collecting such data the first results are expected by mid-2022 why has they been in action for so long we asked frank heinrich who sat on the committee for social affairs for eight years some from his center-right cdu previously voted against commissioning research on homelessness bringing this debate up to the point where research is being commissioned i applaud that but it is still too late and too slow in my opinion i say that as a cdu politician for social affairs it's the government's responsibility to ensure there's at least a basic framework in place which often wasn't the case that's not an excuse but an explanation as to why we are so behind now better late than never with its official census the german government has at least created the first basic framework to assess homelessness but for years there's been no national strategy tackling homelessness falls to the states and municipalities counselling centres and emergency shelters provided by a variety of organizations are all battling an ever-growing problem these services can be confusing to navigate and vary greatly by region we travel to the netherlands to meet a social anthropologist who knows the problems of the german housing assistance system inside and out luisa schneider is an assistant professor in amsterdam as well as a research partner at the max planck institute in hala how does germany's traditional housing assistance scheme works at the moment we are in a situation where we are managing but not solving homelessness the figures we have now make it look like everything's okay in most cities and municipalities but if we look at the problem more closely and understand just how many people are affected we see it's really not okay at all not only from a social perspective but also financially it doesn't work for the health care system it doesn't work for the social system and it doesn't work for our society luisa schneider has researched the living conditions of homeless people for years she's gained the trust of hundreds of people all over germany those who rarely or never turn to local institutions for aid the problems of the housing assistance system often begin with the simple question of how to even find help we could all start by asking ourselves if i were to suddenly lose my home would i know which authority to turn to which forms to fill out what i can apply for what i'm entitled to and of course most people don't know these answers then of course there is the shame the fear of being exposed there is no single clear coordinated strategy because no one has taken responsibility for it so far the responsibility lies with the people who are homeless in bavaria we met two sisters through the caritas charity they're homeless and don't want to be identified until recently they lived together with their father when the family had to move out due to financial problems friends put up the sisters while their father moved into an acquaintances cellar [Music] it's not exactly home as soon as i go out i switch off and can't think about it it's the only way to cope with it you'd lose all courage otherwise the sisters have just turned 18. their father andreas is 55. he sleeps in this 12 square meter room alongside these moving boxes they're all he has left this is no way to live long term it's no way to live now either this shouldn't be a solution the greatest hope of the family of three is to find a flat together again yes it's broken up our whole family this way the family encountered problems with the authorities andreas was looking for work after a previous company went bankrupt financial aid didn't come or came too late their savings quickly ran out now andreas has another job in steel work trades people haven't had a wage increase for 10 years and everything is getting more expensive rents are rising endlessly plus there are no available flats or they're ridiculously expensive the rents here are no more affordable than in munich city center this is how it is for many people rents are rising and with them the number of homeless people affordable housing is becoming increasingly scarce in 1989 germany still had 4 million social housing units in 2006 when responsibility for social housing was transferred to the federal states there were only half as many nationwide in the meantime the number of social housing units has shrunk to around a million [Music] you wonder what happened right was there suddenly a terrible earthquake how can three million social housing units in big german cities suddenly disappear the principle is quite simple the logic of the subsidy program is that occupancy is limited to a certain period of time so of course it expires at some point many social housing units end up on the open market after 10 to 20 years germany's previous grand coalition agreement talked about affordable rents and a housing offensive but the target of 375 000 new flats per year was never reached the number of newly subsidized social housing units is also falling we're currently building about 26 000 social housing units per year with the increased subsidies so new buildings are being completed but 60 000 to 80 000 units per year are falling out of the social program the austerity policy of the last 30 years is ultimately the reason for the decline in social housing in addition flats that are kept empty are reducing the number of affordable flats more and more people do not have a home secured by a tenancy agreement and at the same time the latest estimates show around 1.7 million vacant flats it's often a matter of real estate speculation in this pre-fabricated building on berlin's harbors at strasse more than 80 flats have stood empty for years the owner acadia estates wants to demolish the building and build modern apartments in its place daniel diekmann and eight other tenants still live here and are fighting back in this environment we were given our notice in september 2018 so the owners could proceed with their plans i just want to show you this pile of papers they sent us of course it's all just part of their strategy to make it clear we don't want you here anymore we are still paying our rent of course so we're talking about a so-called extension of occupancy it says here our notice of termination would have ended our tenancy on may 31st 2019 but look we're still here can you understand why many people said this is too much hassle for me i'd rather move out of course when all you hear for years from the owner is i can tell you one thing the modernization work will be a huge upheaval for you and it will cause a huge racket it obviously scared many people away daniel diekmann has been fighting for this building for 15 years back then city authorities sold it and it was renovated to be more energy efficient acadio states has long since lost interest in maintaining it they neglected until the building is completely dilapidated if you wait long enough it will basically collapse on its own at some point in winter the doors won't close properly anymore it's drafty everywhere it's cause and effect the owners recently offered the remaining tenants up to 30 000 euros to move out we asked the owner why the building has been left vacant for years but our questions go unanswered the district authority wants to protect affordable housing like this through a ban on the misappropriation of residential buildings and it refuses to allow acadia estates to demolish the building rightly so says former city councillor ramona riza this is a building that can be described as pre-fab but the flats are certainly habitable and in good condition they may be rather basic but they're definitely habitable a decision to demolish rather than protect such housing would have a ripple effect it would set a precedent to take the rest of berlin down with it if the building were to be demolished the owner is legally obliged to guarantee replacement housing with the same rental conditions but a cardio estates is taking legal action against this the battle over a building where most residents have moved out will now be decided in court i always fight hard for people not to simply accept these vacancies we firmly believe i firmly believe that housing is a fundamental right i've got to live somewhere [Music] while the amount of affordable housing shrinks the amount of vacancies grow social housing is urgently needed and it's not being built fast enough the problem isn't limited to berlin we find someone who has been homeless in one of germany's most expensive cities for seven years in hamburg rents have skyrocketed in the last decade folker can't afford a flat so he sleeps in an arpa a three-wheeled van at the moment i belong to the population of homeless people and i live on the street here in my little upper here it's my four-poster bed on three wheels i don't think anybody in our society should have to live like this the wet weather and the cold can chill you to your bones 66 year old folker has sometimes stayed in emergency shelters but the overcrowded accommodation wasn't for him he prefers to live hidden away in his arpavan homeless people who don't stand out are not noticed at all only if people like you make a film about them i don't want to be labeled as homeless and be treated as such i just want to be treated as the person i am folker used to have his own carpentry business but it became insolvent he always carries memories of his past with him such as a newspaper clipping about a school competition in 1966 i think homeless people also have a desire to keep a bit of their history with them especially memories of better times i was about 11 years old back then and i find it amazing that i still have this article after all i've been through but i still have it and i think that's great folker has come to terms with his situation even though he thinks society urgently needs to change connecting absolutely if i believe the stories i hear from some like-minded people or others who are affected then even former millionaires have now ended up homeless they there will probably be more of them in the future people who somehow don't get things right and end up on the streets if there is no major social change than technicalness for years politicians have failed to act or take timely measures in the last eight years the centre-left spd was also partly responsible for this now it leads germany's government which included a national action plan against homelessness in its coalition agreement the plan is to create a hundred thousand new social housing units per year general secretary kevin coonert was one of the negotiators on the issue with such an existential issue as homelessness the federal government the states and the municipalities cannot keep passing the buck and saying whoever moves first loses and has to pay for everything it is not about getting a few more people out of homelessness it has to be about eliminating homelessness it's not rocket science these are goals we have committed to within the framework of international agreements just recently also within the european union in a joint commitment by eu member states germany also pledged that by 2030 no one should have to be living on the streets anywhere in europe [Music] how credible is that to convey the message that things will suddenly be different and better in the next four years with the new coalition and olaf schultz as chancellor it's like the climate agreements you can't backtrack and discuss shortly afterwards whether you really meant them or not the goal itself should no longer be up for discussion only how to achieve it we will soon have a clear statistical basis for it and it needs to be the last of its kind from then on the curve can only trend down [Music] i think basically two things have to happen first we have to stop managing homelessness we need to solve it this can only be done when we stop seeing the loss of a home as an individual problem and rather see it as a social problem and take social responsibility for it and then you deserve housing approach to an approach for fundamentally and unconditionally everyone deserves housing and afterwards we solve the social problems that's the housing first concept this is this housing first concept housing first is a model that started in the united states and has recently been tested in german cities instead of housing homeless people in temporary accommodation they get their own rented flats this is the basis on which to best tackle all other problems we fly to helsinki where housing first has been implemented as a national strategy in finland reducing the number of homeless people from seventeen thousand to about four thousand we arranged to meet one of the key players from the wye foundation finland's largest non-profit housing provider juha karkinin is considered the architect of finland's new housing policy since 2008 we changed the whole system on homelessness in in finland by by setting a goal that we want to end the long-term homelessness the chronic homelessness first and to do that we need to start providing permanent housing and and we started the national policy that we called the housing first we have had several governments and all have agreed to continue to work towards ending homelessness because we see it as a human rights issue housing first is a success in finland it's helped four out of five people find their way back to a more structured life for the finns this is a sustainable investment since there's no longer a need to finance comprehensive housing assistance the country saves 15 000 euros annually per homeless person former emergency shelters such as this one have been converted to housing it's not a money issue it's always cheaper to provide permanent solutions permanent housing than to keep people to manage try to manage homelessness by providing only only the temporary accommodation in celta's and hostels so basically i think that the big big question is is the political will in germany it's difficult to get into a housing first program chiefly because of the shortage of flats so far only a few hundred people nationwide have been able to sign a tenancy agreement in cologne there have been five so far the sixth person was housed by the city in this run-down hotel for the past two months two residents sharing 12 square meters now joe is moving out a cologne non-profit has found a flat for him look i was really lucky the people from fringstreff who support me the housing first project these are people who accept you and aren't like oh i'm prejudiced you're homeless it's your own fault that you're homeless no one makes themselves homeless i really got lucky and i don't know how but i would wish this kind of luck on everyone yeah it's a new life [Music] i could cry [Music] now i can't get the key in because i'm so excited yes wow joe now has 48 square meters to himself for the city this comes at half the cost of hotel accommodation first of all it takes away all your worries and removes so many obstacles without a flat you can't get anything it's like a vicious circle and you don't know where to start with an address with a flat with a job to get out of that vicious circle housing first is really brilliant nothing can top it [Music] from keel will have to spend this winter hidden in the garage she has the prospect of a flat in spring andreas is still urgently looking for a real home in bad tools his daughters want to live with him again joe is overjoyed he's since furnished his cologne flat and works for a small association daniel and the remaining tenants in berlin's harvard's archdrassa are still threatened with losing their flats a court decision is pending sasha from guma's back will have to spend the winter in his camper van [Music] and folker will share emergency accommodation with someone this winter he still dreams of a real flat in hamburg if we take the emotional aspect out of it it will be much much cheaper and much more beneficial for us as a society if we prevent homelessness before it occurs if we can't prevent it we need to rectify it by 2030 the goal is that no one should have to live without permanent shelter germany has made this commitment politicians now have to take responsibility to no longer just manage the problem of homelessness but to finally solve it [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

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Keywords: Documentary, Documentaries, documentaries, DW documentary, full documentary, DW, documentary 2021, homelessness, housing shortage, social housing, Housing First, real estate speculation, poverty, Germany, inequality, rich and poor, cost of living, high rents, living in germany, life in germany, deutsche welle english documentary, urban development, dw documentary, homelessness documentary, homelessness in germany, social housing in europe, poverty documentary

Id: ik5SAOQQRDA

Length: 28min 26sec (1706 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 01 2022