Needy people in Munich wait twelve months before they find out whether they will receive a rent subsidy. This waiting is often humbling. This shows a constant mismanagement of the city.
Just imagine: a Munich resident buys a car, wants to register it with the authorities – and has to wait. A whole month. A storm of indignation would rock the town hall, the car lobby would criticize administrative failures and demand resignations. Take it, take it, that is a scenario in the unrealis. Register car? Goes fix in Munich.
It is not at all fixed for people who have little money. Those who are dependent on state subsidies for rent in order to live in Munich and often pursue jobs that everyone benefits. There is housing benefit for them and they have a legal right to it. When you apply for this housing benefit, you don’t wait just a month for an official response, as in the fictional horror scenario above. You wait twelve months, a whole year. And what indignation rages over the town hall? No. It’s all everyday life. This city has got used to the fact that poor people need patience. Those in need do not have a sufficiently strong lobby, at least not in the town hall.
No, the city is not responsible for the fact that many who hope for housing benefit end up with nothing or not much, that is due to the calculation rules. It is also the federal and state governments who are apparently responsible for the complicated bureaucracy. And the long waiting time is by no means due to the fact that those responsible in the housing office are incapable. Rather, there is a lack of staff. And the administration and city council with SPD Mayor Dieter Reiter at the top are responsible for this. The same applies to the seven or eight months before citizens find out whether they are entitled to social housing. This waiting is often humbling.
The rulers in the town hall cannot conjure up cheap apartments, that’s one thing. The other is to treat poor Munich residents with the respect that future SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz likes to speak of. If the city has not been able to plan its staff for years in such a way that those in need receive feedback in a reasonable time, then it is indirectly signaling that these people are not that important to it. The staff shortage in the housing office is not a temporary misery, as perhaps in the health department during the corona disaster. In the housing department, there is constant mismanagement of a city that has been shaped by social democrats and the Greens for decades. People in need deserve more respect.