A shared apartment in the middle of Nuremberg: four rooms, each furnished with a white bed, a cupboard or chest of drawers, a bedside table, a desk, a desk chair and a mirror. The residents share the kitchen and bathroom. So far, so ordinary. But this shared apartment is special – it is one of only two accommodations for queer homeless people in Germany. The Fliederlich association has rented a total of two apartments. This means that six rooms are available to queer homeless people, as well as an emergency bedroom. The project is called “Uschis Queeres Wohnen – QuWo”, in memory of the late city councilor Uwe Scherzer. As political drag queen Uschi Unsinn, he campaigned for there to be an offer for queer homeless people in Nuremberg.
Gari Jaiser, a social education specialist at Fliederlich, describes the shared apartments as a “protective place”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/bayern/.”There needs to be accommodation options where people feel safe.” In general, homeless people are affected by discrimination. A queer identity makes them even more vulnerable. “It becomes more and more difficult as more factors come into play,” says Jaiser. The social education specialist is sitting in her office at Fliederlich e. V.. The drawers on the desk have different colors – like a rainbow – just like figures on a shelf. Jaiser explains: The homeless assistance is designed for a two-gender system – there are accommodations for men and women. Mixed accommodation or individual guesthouses are a rarity. This is particularly difficult for trans, intersexual and non-binary people. “For example, I myself am diverse. Where should I be accepted then?” says Jaiser. Many homeless people would therefore hide their queer identity.
Paleo, whose last name should not be in the newspaper, lives in one of the two shared apartments. The 20-year-old is open about his identity as a trans man. He came out to his strict Muslim parents about two years ago. They didn’t accept this and threw him out.
Many other queer homeless people feel the same way as Paleo. “People say they are open to queer people, but in their own environment it’s something else,” explains Jaiser. Due to discrimination, queer people are also more affected by psychological and physical consequences. This makes it more difficult for them to get a job or go to school. Queer identity is usually not the main reason for homelessness, but it is a factor that makes the situation even more difficult. In general, there is a stereotype that people become addicted to alcohol and then lose their apartment. In fact, anything can be a trigger. “A domino falls over and then everything clicks over one after the other,” says Jaiser.
For Paleo, his queer identity was actually the trigger for homelessness. At first he was able to stay with his girlfriend at the time, then with a friend for a few weeks. Before he came to QuWo, he lived in a homeless shelter in Nuremberg. In contrast to many other queer homeless people, he was lucky, he says during a telephone conversation: he had a single room and lived on the same floor with only three other people. There was only a little stress with the security employees at the time. Paleo and another trans man who now lives with him in QuWo wanted to use the men’s toilet. Security said it wasn’t that easy. After all, the biological sex of the two is female. “But apart from that, the stay was problem-free,” says Paleo.
“People should be stable before they move out so that they can hold onto a new apartment.”
In the shared apartment of Fliederlich e. V. he still feels safer now. He doesn’t have to be afraid here because he is among “like-minded people.” “Here you can concentrate on everyday life. Just forget certain things and relax,” describes Paleo. He still goes to school – that takes up most of his everyday life. It’s also good that he doesn’t have any pressure to find a new apartment. The time in Fliederlich’s shared apartments is not limited. This is important to Gari Jaiser: “People should be stable before they move out so that they can keep a new apartment.”
In contrast to many other homeless shelters, QuWo is not staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Jaiser is responsible for this 20 hours a week. The social education specialist takes care of advising queer homeless people or people who are at risk of homelessness. The city then assigns homeless people to accommodation.
Gari Jaiser works as a social education specialist in the homeless shelter for queer people in Nuremberg, run by the Fliederlich association.
(Photo: Lina Krauss)
If someone moves into the QuWo, Jaiser is the contact person again: she goes with them to offices, supports them in finding accommodation and helps in conflict situations. The residents can structure themselves freely and organize their own everyday lives. Jaiser adapts his work to the individual needs of people. “Some people have a regular everyday life. Others, who may have been living on the streets, need to rest first,” explains Gari Jaiser. For these people, the first thing is to make them feel safe.
In order to strengthen the residents’ sense of security, the Fliederlich association does not make the addresses of the shared apartments public. This means there is no risk that future employers or landlords will find out about the homelessness or that people will be involuntarily outed just by their address.
Jaiser sees a great need for such accommodation especially for queer homeless people – not only in Nuremberg, but also in other places. QuWo’s social education specialist sometimes even receives calls from other federal states. Then Jaiser can only provide advice, explain what people need to pay attention to and what questions they should ask before moving into accommodation. Jaiser emphasizes that there have been too few studies on queer homeless people. So it is difficult to emphasize the importance and convince people to take money into their hands.