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Women’s shelter statistics: Thousands of women sought shelter in 2021
Last year, 6,431 women sought protection in women’s shelters. photo
© Maja Hitij/dpa/Archive
Last year, 6,431 women lived temporarily in women’s shelters – this is a slight decrease compared to the previous year. But the institutions are struggling with problems.
Thousands of women and children affected by violence sought protection in women’s shelters last year. In 2021, 6,431 adult residents lived temporarily in women’s shelters, as the women’s shelter coordination announced on Tuesday in Berlin. This corresponds to a decrease of 183 people compared to the previous year.
There was already a drop of 431 people in 2020. According to the association, it is conceivable that the falling numbers are related to the pandemic.
According to the women’s shelters, they lack resources, for example there is a lack of funds for childcare. “Facilities are often so precariously equipped that moving to a women’s shelter with common rooms – and sometimes even the need to share the bedroom – is perceived by the women as social decline,” said managing director Heike Herold. The step out of violence should have the opposite effect, “but that’s ultimately a question of resources and political will,” said Herold.
According to the women’s shelter coordination, in 2021 every fourth woman had to bear some or all of the costs of her stay in the women’s shelter herself. Increasingly, those seeking protection (60 percent) were dependent on a women’s shelter outside of their own city or district. Before the stay, 41.0 percent of the women had received unemployment benefit II. In 2020 it was 43.4 percent.
Communication and statistics women’s shelter coordination