It is very difficult to find an apartment in Munich, especially for young people who are at the beginning of their professional life and therefore only have a small budget. And even if they find someone who would rent them a cheap apartment, the required deposit, which is about three months’ rent, is often an insurmountable obstacle. With an application to Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD), the city council factions of the Left/The Party and the Greens/Pink List want to create a municipal bail fund in order to provide crucial help to young people in this situation.
The proposal is that the city vouches for the young people in such cases and pays the deposit. The left-wing parliamentary group leader Stefan Jagel explains: “The city is not creating enough affordable housing, especially for young people. A guarantee for young people for the deposit is therefore vital for many people, because not everyone has parents who can pay a deposit from petty cash can.” He therefore sees such a municipal deposit fund as a “simple and cost-effective means of supporting young people in taking the step into their own rental apartment and thus towards independence.”
The deputy Green party leader Clara Nitsche argues similarly: Young people in particular could hardly afford to live in Munich. When receiving Bafög, for example, the rent is estimated at just 360 euros. You will hardly find an apartment at this height in Munich. Because the deposit is logically very high given the extreme rental prices in Munich, the deposit fund could be a tailor-made solution. Nitsche: “We urgently need to support young people when overcoming this first hurdle!”
The application suggests that the social services department should not only develop a concept for such a municipal bail fund to help young people in particular whose parents are unable to pay bail for their children. In addition, according to Jagel, the administration should further develop the “social guarantee” system for the homeless and specifically make young people aware of this offer of help within the framework of citizens’ benefit or housing benefit. When asked why the application was submitted by the Left and the Greens, i.e. why the SPD is missing, Jagel told the SZ that this was not an affront to the green-red alliance. Such initiatives do occur in the city council, “also between the Left and the SPD”. In any case, he is betting that a corresponding proposal from the social department “will find a broad majority in the city council”.