integration
Geywitz wants to create more barrier-free apartments
Many apartments cannot be used by people in wheelchairs or with other disabilities. photo
© Arno Burgi/zb/dpa
The housing market is tight in many places – people with physical disabilities often have it even harder: there is not enough accessible living space. However, it would also be important for the circulatory system.
Building Minister Klara Geywitz wants to create more barrier-free apartments in Germany. “Too many people in Germany who live with a disability have to restrict themselves in their own home due to physical barriers or find a new apartment only with enormous effort,” said the SPD politician during a visit to a residential complex in Berlin on Monday.
More barrier-free apartments are also necessary for a cycle of use of living space – that is, for example, for older people to pass on their apartments or houses that have become too large to younger people. According to von Geywitz, the funds that the traffic light government intends to provide for social housing in the coming years will also be used to create more barrier-free living space.
Accessibility is a quality standard from which everyone benefits, said the Federal Government Commissioner for the interests of people with disabilities, Jürgen Dusel. “Anyone who builds something new with barriers today is doing their job badly,” said Dusel. “Barrier-free construction is far too often fraught with prejudices that it’s too expensive, that it’s harder to sell on the market. But neither is true.”
Dusel had invited the Federal Chamber of Architects and the Berlin and Brandenburg Chambers of Architects to a regional conference. The main focus should be how accessibility affects the construction costs.