Rent increase by more than 30 percent: tenants protest in Lichtenberg

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Berlin – They are not going to put up with the rent increases. Tenants from the social housing at Konrad-Wolf-Strasse 62 to 64 in Lichtenberg protested in front of the district town hall on Wednesday evening. “We are demonstrating to draw attention to the unreasonable rent increases in the old social housing, for which funding has been discontinued,” says tenant Sylvia P.

As reported, the rent in the residential complex is expected to rise by January 1, 2022 from around 8.80 euros per square meter to 12.11 euros per square meter cold, i.e. by more than 30 percent. Sylvia P. then has to pay 991 euros instead of 786 euros for her 63 square meter apartment in which she lives with her husband. Many are like you. “The new rent is not affordable,” says Jana B. in an address – and asks for support from the district. “We need replacement apartments,” she says. The tenants finally moved into the social housing because they “do not belong to the big wage earners”. From January 1, however, they should pay rents that sometimes exceed the family income by more than 50 percent.

There is a political reason why it is precisely the apartments in the old social housing sector that are affected by such drastic rent increases: In order to relieve the state budget, the Senate decided in 2003 that after a 15-year housing subsidy had expired, there would be no funding for a further 15 years as usual until then. The owners were thus given the right to increase the rent in the apartments to the so-called cost rent, i.e. the rent that results after accounting for all expenses for the apartments. Around 28,000 apartments were affected by the withdrawal from follow-up funding. The consequences can still be felt today. Because some owners are only now making use of the option to raise the rent.

Thousands of tenants face similar increases

Drastic rent increases like the residents in Konrad-Wolf-Straße threaten thousands of other tenants in Berlin in purely theoretical terms. As of January 1, 2021, the number of accommodations without follow-up funding was around 10,700 apartments, according to the Senate Department for Urban Development. Most owners have so far been reluctant to raise the cost rent. For five percent of the apartments without follow-up funding, the owners demanded the cost rent last year, according to the Senate Administration. The rents were lower in 95 percent of the apartments.

According to the city development administration, the average rent in the apartments without follow-up funding was 7.36 euros per square meter according to a landlord survey at the end of 2020. A rent of an average of 12.26 euros per square meter of living space would be legally permissible. The Senate Administration points out that households with an income within the income limits for social housing are entitled to a rent subsidy. However, that is limited. Sylvia P., for example, has already received a grant of around 160 euros and would not get any more money.

If the red-red-green coalition had promised at the beginning of the last legislative period, the problem shouldn’t have existed for the tenants anymore. R2G had promised a reform of the old social housing, which should also include a regulation for housing without follow-up subsidies. But it didn’t come to that. The reason: the coalition could not agree on one between two competing models. Tenant spokeswoman Jana B. calls on Wednesday evening for a “legal amendment that is as retroactive as possible for the continuation of social housing subsidies”. She openly criticizes the failure. “If the previous Senate had adhered to its own legislative plans, our case would never have occurred.”

District mayor pledges support

Lichtenberg’s district mayor Michael Grunst (left) shows understanding for the tenants. “We will support the tenants as far as we can,” says Grunst to the Berliner Zeitung. For example, when applying for housing benefit and a housing entitlement certificate (WBS). But Grunst wants to achieve even more. “The state of Berlin must use better and longer-term funding instruments in the future,” he demands. “It would be even better if they built the apartments themselves.”

For the existing apartments, “follow-up subsidies must be quickly agreed with the owners and the framework set so that only actual costs can be claimed,” says Grunst. Often absurd financing costs are claimed by the owner in the so-called cost rents, for example interest charges that are well above normal interest rates. “Where that doesn’t help, the tenants need unbureaucratic rent subsidies after the ties are no longer applicable,” said the district mayor.

“We do what we can,” said Grunst in the evening to the tenants in front of the town hall, who were supported by the initiative Deutsche Wohnen und Co expropriate. What he could not guarantee, however, was to provide the tenants with living space. The district office could not do that. However, he will address the state’s own housing association Howoge at the next meeting on the subject. Grunst: “I want people not to be displaced or made homeless.”

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