Integration works better in apartments, because the refugee families there have to deal with going to daycare and school, looking for a job and their neighborhood every day. “In the home you sit in the corner and wait for the next notification,” summarizes Eckart Riechmann. But instead of creating additional decentralized living space, the district administration announced in a draft resolution to the district council in December that it would increase the occupancy of existing accommodation. Eckart Riechmann thinks that’s wrong. This results in “inhuman conditions”. The asylum seekers would be “crammed together in a very small space”.
Study: Faster integration through accommodation in apartments
The Saxon Commissioner for Foreigners Geert Mackenroth (CDU) also explains in a statement on the Christmas speech by the Bautzen district administrator: “In our scientific investigations, the so-called ‘Home MOT’there are no indications that the decentralized accommodation of those seeking protection endangers social peace and good neighborliness.”
1,300 apartments in Hoyerswerda available
The calculations of the Bautzen district office say something else. According to this, accommodation in shared accommodation including care costs around 16 euros per person and day. For the operation of the planned accommodation in a former data center in Hoyerswerda, on the other hand, more than 23 euros per person were estimated. In apartments with comparable care, the costs would be between 13 and 26 euros per person and day. How high the costs are within this range depends on how many people can be accommodated in one apartment, the district administration said.
The district sees Hoyerswerda as the best place to accommodate refugees in apartments. According to Mayor Torsten Ruban-Zeh (SPD), around 1,300 apartments are empty in Hoyerswerda’s new town. Steffen Markgraf, managing director of the Hoyerswerda housing association, explained: “Apartments that are vacant with us are not ready for occupancy. They have to be renovated.” That takes six to eight weeks. For an apartment that is prepared, costs of up to 8,000 euros can be estimated.
The district of Görlitz favors smaller accommodations
As Steffen Markgraf reports, the integration of Ukrainian refugees in house communities works well. For people from other cultures, the effort is “significantly higher,” Markgraf said in November to residents in Kühnicht. Here the housing association is dependent on the help of the social workers of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt. Learning the language, dealing with authorities, technical instructions – that is a major effort. The consultants of the housing association could not do this alone.
The neighboring district of Görlitz favors exactly this path: housing refugees primarily in apartments. “The district deliberately does not rely on very large communal accommodations, as this usually causes increased stress potential and dangers in the accommodation,” said a spokesman for the district. The largest home in the district of Görlitz is a community accommodation in Löbau. No more than 230 people may be accommodated there.
Hardly any places left in community accommodation in the district of Bautzen
For the most part, the district of Görlitz has had good experiences with decentralized accommodation. “Despite problems with individual families, living together in an apartment in a family group is more pleasant than in a room in shared accommodation,” summarizes a spokesman for the authorities. However, accommodating refugees exclusively in apartments is not a solution, because not all people or families are eligible for their own apartment – for example due to lack of independence, language barriers or hygienic problems.
In the community accommodations in the district of Bautzen, however, places are becoming scarce. As the district office announced when asked, the communal accommodations were in the middle of the month a total of 65 places left. However, the district administration assumes that around twice as many refugees will be assigned to the district in December. The Spreehotel in Bautzen, which has been used as refugee accommodation again since the beginning of December, should provide relaxation. Because of an arson attack, 40 percent fewer people can be accommodated there than originally planned.