The cold wave in Germany is putting the homeless assistance system to a severe test. Shelters and hostels in many cities are reporting record occupancy rates and are forced to operate at their limits, often beyond them. German Caritas and Diakonie are warning that financial resources, personnel, and accommodation spaces are exhausted. National media describe the situation as dramatic, especially in metropolises like Berlin and Hamburg, where homelessness is a particularly visible problem. Services emphasize that harsh winters reveal systemic weaknesses in housing and social policy.
Record Occupancy of Shelters
Homeless shelters across Germany are reporting full occupancy, and in many places, there are no more free spaces. Facilities are forced to provide emergency aid in corridors or on floors. Aid organizations emphasize that they are unable to provide safe shelter from the cold for all those in need.
Exhaustion of Resources and Personnel
Both church organizations and municipal social services signal that their budgets for winter aid are insufficient. Staff are working on the brink of exhaustion, and volunteers are also overwhelmed. There is a shortage not only of accommodation spaces but also of warm meals, clothing, and hygiene items.
Systemic Gap in Housing Policy
Experts point out that the crisis situation in winter is merely a symptom of a deeper problem, which is the housing crisis in Germany. Rising property and rental prices, inflation, and a lack of available affordable housing mean that more and more people are facing the risk of losing their homes.
Regional Differences in Aid
The level of security and availability of aid varies significantly depending on the federal state and city. While some metropolises, like Berlin, have activated additional, temporary shelters, other regions struggle with a lack of coordination and sufficient funding. This leads to an uneven distribution of the aid burden.
Germany is facing a humanitarian and logistical crisis caused by an exceptionally cold winter, which has put the homeless assistance system to a severe test. Shelters and hostels across the country, from Hamburg to Munich, are operating at their absolute limit, accommodating more people than their formal capacity. Many homeless individuals receive aid under emergency conditions—sleeping on mats laid out on floors in multi-purpose halls, corridors, and even in heated tents, which in some cities are the last resort.
The problem of homelessness in Germany, though less visible than in some other developed countries, has a long history and is complex. Estimates regarding its scale are difficult, but aid organizations indicate that in the last decade, the number of people without a permanent roof over their heads in Germany has increased, linked among other things to the opening of borders for migrants from Eastern Europe after 2011, the refugee crisis after 2015, and the nationwide housing crisis, which particularly affects major cities. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in its estimates often does not include so-called 'hidden homelessness,' meaning people temporarily staying with friends or in institutions.
Major aid organizations, such as the Catholic Caritas and the Protestant Diakonie, which are pillars of the German social assistance system, are warning that their resources—both financial and human—are exhausted. Staff and volunteers are working under extreme pressure, and budgets allocated for winter aid prove insufficient against the scale of need. The situation is worsened by the fact that the housing crisis, characterized by a drastic increase in rental prices and a lack of available, affordable housing, means the group of people at risk of homelessness is constantly growing. The winter cold wave merely exposes these systemic weaknesses, which remain less visible in summer. Municipal authorities in Berlin, Cologne, or Hamburg have activated additional, temporary accommodation spaces, but these actions are often ad hoc and do not solve the root cause of the problem.
„Unsere Unterkünfte sind überfüllt, das Personal am Limit. Wir helfen, wo es nur geht, auch in Fluren. Aber das ist nur Feuerlöschen.” (Our shelters are overcrowded, the staff is at their limit. We help wherever we can, even in corridors. But this is just firefighting.) — Caritas Representative
There is a clear regional disparity in the availability and quality of aid. While some wealthy federal states and cities can afford faster responses and better funding, other regions struggle with bureaucratic obstacles and a lack of resources. This leads to a situation where the chance of obtaining safe shelter on a freezing night depends on the location where a person in need finds themselves. Experts in social policy emphasize that a long-term solution must involve increased investment in affordable social housing and strengthening preventive assistance programs that prevent loss of housing. Meanwhile, street outreach workers and intervention teams are trying to reach those who, for various reasons—fear, mental illness, shame—do not seek institutional shelters, and whose lives are directly threatened in extreme cold. The current winter has thus become a tragic test for the German welfare state, revealing its gaps and underinvestment in a key area of combating social exclusion.
Perspektywy mediów: Liberal media, such as Süddeutsche Zeitung and ZEIT ONLINE, focus on systemic criticism, presenting the situation as an effect of long-term neglect in housing and social policy. Conservative and right-wing media more often emphasize migration issues and system abuse, pointing to the burden on services by migrants and the need for stricter verification of aid applicants.