Flexi homes for homeless households: New support program
With the preliminary decision taken today by the City Council’s Committee for Urban Planning and Building Regulations, Munich is setting an example to combat homelessness: the 2015 support program for flexible homes has been fundamentally revised and made more attractive for investors. Significant changes in the subsidy program include the fact that the subsidy system has been adapted to the existing housing construction programs and common areas are taken into account in the subsidy and the rent. The subsidy is still divided into a subsidy for construction costs and an investment subsidy for the initial equipment, which can be claimed independently of one another.
In recent years, flexi homes have established themselves as a powerful tool in helping the homeless in Munich.
Homelessness has now reached mainstream society and also affects working people. Due to the pandemic, a further tightening is expected.
The aim of the flexi homes is to finance various target groups with a housing shortage temporarily with accommodation that goes beyond the previous accommodation, for example in pensions, which is very stressful for households with children. The accommodation in flexi homes takes place in self-contained apartments with a kitchenette and a separate sanitary area and is intended to serve as preparation for a regulated tenancy. The households receive on-site socio-educational support until they find a permanent home. Common rooms as well as play and homework rooms for children and young people are available for childcare. There are now six flexi homes in Munich with 824 places. Approximately another 600 places are currently in the construction phase or concrete preliminary planning. The aim is to create a total of 5,000 bed places spread over the entire city area.
Mayor Dieter Reiter: “We are working flat out to support people in need in Munich at all levels. Our concepts to compensate for temporary homelessness and to enable a return to a regular housing situation help many affected families with children. At a time when the challenges are getting bigger, these valuable solutions are needed.”
City Planning Officer Professor Dr. (Univ. Florence) Merk: “In a city like Munich with a tight housing market, the creation of accommodation is a major challenge. With the continuation of the ‘Flexi-Homes’ program, we have created the best conditions together with the social department, new actors* inside for building more flexi homes. We are pleased to be able to give prospects to those people who are having the hardest time on the housing market.”
Social officer Dorothee Schiwy: “Flexi homes offer significantly better accommodation conditions, especially for families with children. Especially in times of the pandemic, there are hardly any suitable rooms for homework or even homeschooling available in regular shelters for the homeless. The self-contained units in the flexi homes give families, singles and couples a sense of privacy until they have their own rental home. In this way we create better temporary solutions for homeless people, who often find themselves in such an emergency through no fault of their own.”