15 years ago, says Eli, a slim woman with dark, short hair, she crawled in here on all fours. The alcohol had destroyed her, both physically and mentally. Her family and friends had turned their backs on her. “I was more dead than alive,” says the 50-year-old, knitting her eyebrows together as if the memory caused her physical pain. “But I got up again.”
An institution that she still visits regularly today proved to be an important support: the Pedro contact shop of the Condrobs association in Neuperlach. Since 1997 it has served as a contact point for people who take or substitute drugs. They also get advice and psychosocial care here, but above all practical help “to improve their individual life situation”, as Susanne Taubmann, the manager of the facility, puts it. Means: Here you can get a warm lunch for one euro, plus food and drinks from the “Münchner Tafel” food bank, a computer, a washing machine and a shower, as well as condoms and clean fixer syringes.
For more than 20 years, the Pedro contact shop was located on Ollenhauer Straße behind the Pep shopping center. But then the lease was not extended – allegedly because of complaints from the neighborhood, which nobody could confirm. As a result, Condrobs searched in vain for a new home. It was only at the last moment that the facility was accommodated in the basement of the church’s Stephanszentrum in Neuperlach’s residential ring in 2019 – temporarily, as it was called.
“But months turned into years,” says Taubmann, who is standing on Von-Knoeringen-Strasse near Neuperlach Zentrum station this morning – and is very happy right now. The reason for this is the Gewofag building in front of her, at which she now points her index finger and says: “Finally we are out of the temporary and have a home again. The rooms are great. To my knowledge, this is the first contact shop that is in moves to a new building. That shows the appreciation for our work – and the appreciation for our clientele.”
This Thursday, the contact shop is celebrating the opening of its new premises, which, according to Taubmann, “cannot be compared with the previous temporary arrangement”. For example, the office for the four employees was in the same room as the kitchen, where the meals for the drug addicts were prepared. Or more precisely: the four hotplates on which this happened. “In contrast, we have a professional catering kitchen here – financed by donations,” says Taubmann, pointing to the area behind a counter where Eli is chopping vegetables. She was a client of the contact shop for years, and now she helps with an employment project.
Facility management Susanne Taubmann is very happy about the new premises.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
What do you think of the new premises? Eli only answers this question with a long drawn out “Wow!”. Despite all the enthusiasm, one shouldn’t forget, says Susanne Taubmann, how difficult and lengthy the search for a permanent home was. “With marginalized groups, it is almost impossible for those who run such facilities to find space,” she emphasizes. In addition to the high rents in Munich, the lack of a lobby and the bad reputation of drug addicts made the search more difficult.
At the new location, too, as soon as the plans had been leaked, the surrounding owners protested against the moving in of the contact shop by means of an online petition. As a result, several round tables were arranged, says Taubmann. Among other things, it was agreed that the facility would be allocated a different area in the building. “This should ensure that our clients don’t pass the facility’s playground on their way off the subway.”
The contact shop now has a professional kitchen.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
She emphasizes that she can understand the fears of the neighbors – on the one hand. On the other hand, there is now a great need for such aid facilities, and this has increased in recent years. As a result, the contact shop at the new location will also be open on four days instead of three as before. There is also a women’s breakfast and open counseling two mornings a week.
“If facilities like this didn’t exist, the problems would shift to the streets,” Susanne Taubmann is convinced. An average of 60 drug addicts and substitutes per opening day would have visited the contact shop in Ollenhauer Straße. After the move to the temporary facility, this number was significantly lower. “I’m assuming that there will be more in our new rooms,” says the manager. Here, too, they want to “primarily offer survival aid” – as was the case with Eli. “The contact shop helped me get back on my feet,” says the 50-year-old. “It was an important point of contact for me at a time when I was all alone.”