Every Wednesday homeless people come to the Tarbor Parish Church in Berlin to get warm, eat something, drink and go to the toilet. In the next period, the parish of the evangelical church plans to offer homeless people a hot meal. For 30 years, the church has been offering sleeping places to the homeless once a week. An average of 40 people spend the night in the vestibule of the church. On some cold winter days, the homeless reach 60. Two volunteer doctors are also present, who take care of the injured or sick.

Sabine Albrecht is a priest of the parish of Tarbor: “Those who have no help from anywhere come to us. Some are in a tragic situation.” Those who spend the night here are different from those who come just for a hot coffee, says Sabine Albrecht, adding that many come from Eastern Europe, some even working in low-paid jobs. Many are addicted to drugs or alcohol, others have experienced abuse and mental illness. The priest even refers to a man, who “has been sleeping here in the parish for twenty years”.

Affordable housing is absent

“The homeless are a serious social problem,” Verena Rosenke, managing director of the Federal Homeless Support Community (BAG W), tells DW. He estimates that the main reason is the absence of affordable housing. According to recent calculations by BAG W, the homeless in Germany reached 607,000 in 2022. Of these, approximately 50,000 were living on the streets without any accommodation.

Last year, the Federal Statistical Service registered 372,060 homeless people, who were accommodated in municipal services, churches or other institutions. The German Statistical Office’s significantly lower numbers are due to the counting method. BAG W records the data for an entire year and not a specific date, while also taking into account homeless people, who sleep with friends, relatives or even strangers.

“People come who you don’t imagine are in need”

The German government had set an annual target of 400,000 new homes, of which 25% would be social housing. However, the government is a long way from these goals. For Verena Rosenke the target of 100,000 social housing units fell short of what was needed and was not in a position to address the affordable housing shortage anyway. The German expert calculates that in addition to social housing, another 100,000 affordable apartments are needed: “Only 25,000 new social housing units have been built in recent years,” notes the head of the Federal Homeless Support Community: “They are not even enough to compensate for the reduction of the existing ones social housing”. Verena Rosenke is in favor of a fixed quota of homeless people in social housing.

On Wednesday afternoon, there are already ten people who want to spend the night in the vestibule in the Berlin church of the Tarbor parish. In the corridor a man is lying in front of the radiator. Priest Sabine Albrecht explains: “Some lie down next to the radiator to warm up for the first time in days.” Two homeless people are reading books, having sandwiches and coffee in front of them. They look like well-groomed, but older students. Sabine Albrecht adds: “More and more often people come to church on Wednesdays, whom I would never have imagined to be in need or homeless.”