A few days ago, a tabloid headlined that a tenant’s first housing association had turned off the hot water. Panicked clients who are afraid of the future immediately contacted Stefan Wallner. The head of the housing emergency aid of the workers’ welfare in the district of Munich reported on Thursday evening in the Unterhachinger town hall. The Greens have gone there to an “after work round of talks” entitled “Poverty excludes – what can we do together?” invited. On the podium next to Wallner are the nanny and social worker Florian Dietrich, Claudia Mammach from the social services of Caritas and Eva Belm, the vice-principal of the Unterhachinger elementary and middle school. Local and district councilor Evi Karbaumer and member of the state parliament Claudia Köhler are in the audience but can be contacted for questions.
“The poverty line is 1126 euros net per month for an individual and 2364 euros net for a couple with two children,” says moderator Johanna Zapf, second mayor in Unterhaching and newly elected chairwoman of the local Greens association, at the beginning. In Bavaria, every fifth child is affected by poverty, adds Claudia Köhler. That on Twitter the hashtag #I am affected by poverty trendet, therefore does not surprise the head of the housing emergency service. “Many people are under pressure,” reported Wallner. Not only those who are about to lose their homes or are already homeless, but also many who have a home. “How am I supposed to heat in winter?” Many people asked themselves. “Many need to heat the bedroom, otherwise mold will form.”
Stefan Wallner from the housing emergency service of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt experiences frustration and panic among his clients.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Unterhaching’s second mayor Johanna Zapf will moderate the evening.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Housing problems are only the tip of the iceberg anyway, Wallner explained. In many cases, making an apartment available to your clients would by no means be enough – even if one could be found. Many bring with them a long, complicated life story and have the current problems for a reason. Such people put additional fear and terror into the energy crisis and price increases for food. “Enabling people to take care of themselves” – this goal of housing emergency assistance is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. “We have a lot of frustrated people,” Wallner said.
“Work no longer protects against poverty,” is the realization of Caritas
However, the clients of the counseling centers are no longer just people who draw social benefits. “Since the beginning of the Corona crisis two years ago, new people have come to our advice service,” says Claudia Mammach, Head of the Social Services department at Caritas in Haar. These people would have jobs, but earned too little. In the past two years, the proportion of those seeking advice from Caritas has increased from 4.8 to ten percent. “Work no longer protects against poverty,” complains Mammach. The need for advice has also risen sharply overall, most recently due to inflation and the gas crisis. “It’s a very dramatic development.”
Claudia Mammach, head of the social services at Caritas in Haar, tells of the increasing need for advice from people who cannot make a living from their work.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
With around 5,000 Ukrainians now living in the district, the number of communities of need has doubled. These are now also entitled to come to free food outlets such as the Tafel. The Taufkirchner Tafel, for example, provides for around 180 needy people. “Recently, however, another 200 people came to the door and wanted ID.” That can no longer be managed, and there is not enough food because supermarkets sell food that is on the expiry date cheaply. “It no longer works at the back and at the front,” said Mammach.
Almost half of the children no longer go on class trips, says the teacher
The social services are now planning to make “energy poverty” the focus of their consultations. Together with their clients, they want to consider whether they might increase their advance payments now and build up credit with the electricity provider, for example. The topic of saving electricity also takes up more space in the consultations. Two refrigerators shouldn’t be. However, unemployed people who are at home all day use more electricity than employed people.
Eva Belm, the deputy director of the Unterhachinger elementary and middle school, has discovered hidden poverty in her school.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Vice President Eva Belm from the elementary and middle school in Unterhaching reports that poverty is often hidden. “If a class goes on a class trip, an average of 11 out of 20 children go along.” But the other nine children wouldn’t say why they didn’t come along. From an early age they are used to having to do without many things and to keep their poverty a secret. Knowledge about the poverty of the students is therefore based more or less on assumptions. Even if children talk about their weekend or vacation, you can make sense of it as a teacher. “If some were in Dubai for two weeks, but the others were only in day care.”
Childcare worker and social worker Florian Dietrich also asks himself how he could survive in Munich with his wife and children given his small salary.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
Florian Dietrich has something similar to report from the kindergarten and crèche. Of course you can draw some conclusions from the snacks that the children get for the afternoon, says the educator. “Some just have a milk roll in it, while others have carefully chopped carrot and cucumber pieces and a piece of bread.” You can also tell a lot from the clothes and the physical condition of the children. So not all parents could give their children thicker mud pants for the winter. Should he one day have children of his own, he might have similar problems. “When I imagine that I need a larger apartment for my wife and children.” That cannot be done in Munich with his salary as a social worker. “Then I would have to move away.”