2023-07-01 03:12:53
With around 20,000 people, the number of people registered as homeless in Austria is regarding as high as in the previous year. However, the number of unreported cases is likely to be twice as high. What has changed is that more people have to take advantage of the offers of eviction prevention agencies. “We have to play fire brigade more and more and avert an emergency situation,” says BAWO chairwoman and Neunerhaus managing director Elisabeth Hammer in the APA interview.
The chairwoman of the Federal Working Group for Homeless Aid (BAWO) notices this particularly with the low-threshold offers of the Neunerhaus. “More and more people are coming, with increasingly complex problems.” With rent increases, additional energy cost payments and increased food costs, many would have to weigh up which of these they should deal with first. At the same time, inquiries to eviction prevention offices are increasing rapidly. Depending on the federal state, it varies whether the number of inquiries can be dealt with or whether the bodies can only take on the most urgent cases. “As a profession we find ourselves in an emergency situation, playing fire brigade and giving people some breathing space, but we remain unsure whether this is a lasting solution to the problem or just a one-off relief,” alarmed Hammer. For example, it is no longer possible to check in all cases whether the apartment is still affordable or whether it is necessary to move to a cheaper one.
So far, these difficulties have not yet been reflected in the housing and homelessness figures, but Hammer considers it not unlikely that this will happen. “We don’t know whether the numbers can remain stable or whether they will increase quite drastically with a catch-up effect.” Hammer is fundamentally satisfied with the measures taken by the federal government and the city of Vienna to deal with homelessness, such as the housing umbrella. “In my view, there has never been so much commitment in terms of content and finances from the Ministry of Social Affairs to prevent or end homelessness.” In the last two years there has been a great willingness to take up the issue and money. It is necessary for housing to be “well anchored in several ministries”. However, Hammer is critical of the fragmentation of housing agendas at different levels: “The fact that responsibilities are distributed in this way – at federal, federal and local level – sometimes prevents a coherent, powerful strategy.”
The City of Vienna has also “set every lever in motion to put together packages of measures”. However, the sustainability of these measures – both those of Vienna and those of the federal government – is difficult to assess. A problem is still the clarity of the help. “Not only users, but also social workers feel powerless.”
She worries that inflation is driving people into loneliness. “People have to save. With food, but also with social contacts.” Many leisure activities, but also a simple drink in a guest garden are no longer or only rarely possible. Especially following the corona pandemic, there is a high risk that people will become lonely as a result. “The lower the income, the more difficult it is to find a cheap leisure activity. “We are looking at what we can do to enable people to participate in society as a preventive health measure.”
Around six percent of adults have already experienced a phase of homelessness. Even people who ten years ago would never have thought that they would find themselves in this situation would now use the offers of the Neunerhaus. “We will hear the sentence ‘I never thought that this might happen to me’ more often in the future.” A big problem is the high number of fixed-term rental contracts, because “every change of address involves a risk. Moving and deposits cost money”.
Hammer sees it very positively that some emergency sleeping places are now also open in summer, regardless of the pandemic. “But one mustn’t forget that homelessness is ultimately ended by an apartment and thus by housing policy. Social organizations can create interim solutions, but they cannot end homelessness.” That’s why she’s happy that the “housing first” concept, which the Neunerhaus brought to Vienna nine years ago together with the Fonds Soziales Wien, is now also starting up at national level. Having your own apartment is the top priority and, above all, the first goal. Instead of slowly introducing people who have been homeless for a long time to “renting” once more, they should be able to get their own apartment as quickly as possible. 92 percent of those who got an apartment in this way are still living there three years later. Hammer praised the Ministry of Social Affairs for taking on the financing entry and thus the entry costs into the non-profit sector. “This opens up a large chunk of information for our users to which they previously had no access.”
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