Berlin’s Green Group proposes a heat concept for the homeless because of the increasingly hot summers in Berlin.
Among other things, homeless people should be able to use city toilets in Berlin free of charge in the future and shower in Berlin’s outdoor pools at certain times. These are two proposals that the social policy spokesman for the Greens in the Berlin House of Representatives, Taylan Kurt, has developed. The concept is available to the Tagesspiegel newsletter Checkpoint. “Hot summers are no longer the exception, but will be the rule in Berlin and the city will continue to heat up,” Kurt writes in the paper. Homeless people are particularly at risk because they do not have the resources to protect themselves from daytime heatwaves and tropical nights. They would have no retreat and hardly any financial resources.
“Heat can kill,” Kurt writes. The social politician therefore proposes extending the offer of heat relief – similar to cold relief – to the whole city from July to September. Social Senator Katja Kipping (left) opened the first accommodation for the heat aid in Berlin on Wednesday. Kipping had told the Tagesspiegel that it would not be easy to expand to the whole of Berlin, and that it would have taken years with the cold aid.
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Green politician Kurt explains: “The cold aid has established itself in Berlin to protect the homeless from cold death. In the future there must also be protection against the consequences of death due to heat”. Churches, town halls or subway stations are conceivable as places. In addition, the homeless should be able to use city toilets free of charge in the future, for example by issuing vouchers. After the daily closing time, they should be able to use the showers in indoor and outdoor pools.
The SPD parliamentary group has cautious approval for the proposal. The socio-political spokeswoman Nina Lerch told the Tagesspiegel: “Heat aid based on the model of cold aid from July to September sounds like a good idea.” However, she considers the rooms proposed by Kurt to be unsuitable for safety reasons, as does the suggestion of outdoor pools take a shower. “That’s too immature for me and sounds like a quick shot,” said Lerch.
Like Lerch, the FDP also supports Kurt’s basic idea that “heat aid is given the same importance as cold aid”. That said the socio-political spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Tobias Bauschke, the daily mirror.
Details are definitely still being debated.
