On Tuesday, the Mitte district office approved a settlement for the demolition of the block of flats at Habersaathstraße 40 to 48, in which 56 formerly homeless people also live after occupation. This is intended to end a legal dispute with the owner.
In 2018, the Arcadia Estate applied for the demolition of the former Charité nursing home with 106 small apartments. The district had rejected this because there was a lack of such inexpensive living space and, according to the Misuse of Purposes Act, replacement apartments in new buildings may only cost 7.92 euros rent per square meter. In the meantime, the district no longer sees a way to prevent the demolition. “Even if the decision made today is painful, the district office did not have to act according to what is desirable, but according to what is legally permissible,” said district mayor Stephan von Dassel (Greens). The decision was the “best of all difficult alternative courses of action”.
The settlement will only take effect if the seven previous tenants accept the owner’s offers. That’s 1,000 euros per square meter in compensation when you move out, alternatively a convertible apartment and later an apartment in a new building at the previously low rent.
If no settlement is reached, the district office still has to approve the demolition “for legal reasons” – then new buildings could be built, the district would have less influence.
With the settlement, the owner undertakes to create an equivalent apartment for each demolished apartment. The 91 replacement apartments have to be rented cold for an average of a maximum of 7.92 euros per square meter net, but since March the maximum amount of 9.17 euros has been in the ordinance on misappropriation.
In this case, 30 percent of the apartments are to be rented half for €6.50 and half for €8.50. The district proposes the tenants for this.
It is also clear that the 56 homeless people who the owner tolerated as winter aid after being squatted will have to leave the house.
With the settlement, the district office wants to ensure that they are allowed to stay until the demolition. There are positive signals for this, it said. A spokeswoman for the residents announced resistance: “We’re staying.”
