The government of Upper Bavaria is currently converting a former hotel in Johanneskirchen into a so-called anchor branch for refugees. The building complex at Musenbergstrasse 25-27 near the Johanneskirchen S-Bahn station is due to go into operation at the beginning of next year, according to the government. Around 300 people are to be temporarily accommodated there, “primarily families,” as a government spokesman emphasized when asked by the SZ. Because for them there is a special need for rooms, since “partly larger family associations” are currently coming to Munich. According to the government of Upper Bavaria, the former hotel is “particularly well suited” as it has furnished apartments of various sizes with their own bathrooms.
That sounds spacious, but the anchor centers and their branches have been criticized for years. Just a few weeks ago, the Bavarian Refugee Council, Diakonie Deutschland, the German Caritas Association, the Paritätische Gesamtverband, Arbeiterwohlfahrt and Pro Asyl called for the anchor centers to be closed in a nationwide appeal. “Anchor” stands for “arrival, decision, repatriation”. Refugees have been housed there for three years until they are distributed to local authorities or deported. The Munich city council also criticized the facilities years ago. The people there usually have to spend many months in cramped conditions without knowing how their lives in Germany could go on. During the peak of the corona pandemic, refugee facilities – both state and municipal – were in quarantine for weeks in some cases. People were often not even allowed to leave their rooms. The Refugee Council criticizes the fact that families with children have to stay there for up to six months, everyone else for up to two years. But the government is still sticking to the concept.
In April, the Munich Local Building Commission approved the former hotel in Johanneskirchen for a change of use. Originally, far more than four hundred people were supposed to be accommodated there, but now, according to the government of Upper Bavaria, around three hundred people will live there temporarily from the beginning of 2022. It will be the third Anker branch in Munich, there is one in the north of Munich and another in Trudering. There is also the so-called arrival center for the first few days in Munich. The city repeatedly offers to take refugees into decentralized communal accommodation as quickly as possible in order to give the often traumatized people more privacy. There they can also receive better social care.
In the new Anker branch on Musenbergstraße there will be a central food service. The government of Upper Bavaria also promises common rooms, children will have play facilities in the building, and a children’s play area will also be set up on the outdoor area. Diakonie München und Oberbayern is to take over social care; it has also been involved in other state institutions for years and with employees on site. The care includes, among other things, refugee and integration counseling, but also looking after children and parents.
Both the government and the city have to keep looking for new buildings for accommodation, the rentals are usually limited or people live in former barracks such as the Funkkaserne and Bayernkaserne, which are giving way to new residential areas. Renting new properties is not easy. The Bogenhausen district committee already pointed out in spring that there are already five communal accommodations for refugees in the city district. In addition, the new location on Musenbergstrasse is not exactly ideal for families with children. The area is strongly characterized by commerce, social facilities are rather rare.