Housing shortage: The rapidly growing number of homeless families – and what lies behind it

Around 220,000 people in single-parent and couple households were homeless in Germany as of January 31, 2024. This emerges from the federal government’s response to a request from the Left group in the Bundestag. The letter is available to WELT.

“Homeless” are not homeless people who live on the streets, but rather all those who do not own a home or have a rental agreement. Exact figures, such as those to which the federal government refers, are only available for “accommodated homeless people” – this does not include people who are temporarily staying with friends and relatives.

The official statistics therefore include those whose housing a municipality pays so that they do not end up on the streets; People who live in Caritas facilities and other social organizations that provide assistance to the homeless; or Ukrainian war refugees and recognized asylum seekers who cannot find an apartment and continue to live in container accommodation.

The topic of the Linke group’s inquiry was the “housing situation of families in Germany”. She didn’t just ask how many people living in family households were homeless. She also wanted to know how many families lived on rent. 3.3 million families with children under 18 plus 1.8 million single parents live in rent. The Left also received an answer to how many families receive housing benefit as a state subsidy for rent (around 400,000). On average, families receive 426 euros in housing benefit; the number of families affected is particularly high in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg.

In view of the living situation of the families described in this way, which also includes a survey of cramped living conditions based on subjective criteria, the left speaks of a “social catastrophe”. “The housing crisis continues to worsen. Rising costs for energy and food are exacerbating the already tense situation of many families and pushing them to their limits,” said Gökay Akbulut, family policy spokeswoman for the group. The “tight housing market is even leading to more and more families becoming homeless,” Akbulut continued.

Are more and more families actually losing their rental contracts and becoming homeless? You can’t say that in general terms. This becomes apparent when one differentiates the homeless families by nationality, which neither the Left group did in its request nor the federal government did in its answer.

Between 2022 and 2024, the number of homeless German people living in single-parent or couple households with children increased from around 10,000 to around 12,300. It is not possible to determine from the data who in this group of people became homeless and is now living in an apartment paid for by the state or in shared accommodation. The reasons can be the loss of an apartment for economic reasons, but also a burnt down house – but it can also be about mothers who are trying to escape a violent man with their children.

The number of homeless families accommodated abroad is much higher, most of whom have probably never lived in Germany in their own home or with their own rental agreement. The number of people in this group increased from around 70,000 in 2022 to around 210,000 in 2024. According to the Federal Office, the large increase in the number of homeless people accommodated is “mainly due to improvements in data reporting” since the statistics were introduced three years ago. You can also see that the war in Ukraine as well as escape and migration from Syria and Afghanistan play a major role.

WELT has figures from the Federal Statistical Office that show the shares of different nationalities in the total of all homeless people accommodated – not just those from family households. As of January 31, 2024, there were 439,465 people in Germany.

61,545 or 14 percent of them are German, 377,920 or 86 percent are foreigners. Of the total number of housed homeless people, Ukrainian citizens represent the largest single national group (136,855 or 31.1 percent). Syrians are ahead of the Germans (14.7 percent), followed shortly after the Germans by Afghans (10.3 percent). 4.7 percent of those accommodated come from other EU countries and 2.3 percent from the Western Balkan states.

More than 200,000 power cuts last year

The Left Party also wanted to know from the federal government how many families were affected by electricity and gas cuts last year. However, the federal government has no information relating to families; it only reports totals: According to it, in 2023 there were a total of 204,441 electricity and 28,059 gas cuts. The power cuts have therefore fallen compared to the last pre-war year of 2021, when their number was 235,000; The number of gas blockages has increased slightly; at that time it was 27,000.

Providers can impose electricity and gas cuts if customers do not pay their bills despite reminders. This does not apply, the federal government writes in its response, “if the consequences of the interruption are disproportionate to the seriousness of the violation or the customer demonstrates that there is a reasonable prospect that he will meet his obligations.”

Politically, the Left derives from the “social catastrophe” it has identified on the housing market, among other things, the demand for a “nationwide stop to rent increases and upper limits for rents” and wants an end to “speculation with living space on the stock market”.

With regard to homeless families, the federal government refers in its answer to the so-called National action plan against homelessnesslocated at the SPD-led Ministry of Construction. According to its website, 18.15 billion euros will flow into social housing between 2022 and 2027. In its response to the Left Group, the federal government also points out that in 2023 “a total of 49,591 residential units in the area of ​​social housing were supported by the states,” almost 21 percent more than in the previous year.

Political editor Jan Alexander Casper reports on domestic politics for WELT.