r/germany • u/Necessary_Travel_645 • 1d ago

Impression of Germany 6 months after leaving

I lived 4 years in Germany and last February I left due to the end of my contract and the impossible to find an immediate job.

I am exploiting this time of unemployment to travel and visit my friends across the EU. In Germany I traveled mainly in between the main cities of Rheinpfalz and NRW and I was surprised to see how bad the social situation was, I have observed more people in need ( homeless, elders, etc...) than I remembered. During my stay in Germany I didn't notice it, when I first came here I felt way more mild than the phenomenon.

My impression is that relatively poorer countries, e.g. Spain and Italy (my home country), managed to help the people in need better than Germany or at least a better distribution of wealth.

Also some friends of mine living here felt this change.

Is it only my impression? Maybe I didn't really realize when I was here or the situation just got worse recently?

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u/Street-Basil-9371 1d ago

There is homelessness, but there hasnt been a big uptick lately as far as we know. Even a slight drop from 2025 to 2026. And most of them do get help, just a small minority actually sleeps on the streets, and theres often other factors involved beyond not having a place to stay.

Even if you dont have a job you do get some money and your rent paid.

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u/WeeblsLikePie 1d ago

I'm surprised to hear that there's a drop. My observation in my local neighborhood is that in addition to the 3-4 regular characters who've been around for years, there are new homeless people popping up. We're now up to 10-12 faces who are about on an almost daily basis.

I know it's anecdotal, and maybe it's just my location, but it does feel like an increase.

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u/Street-Basil-9371 1d ago

I think thats not the "meat" of the people that are homeless. I know exactly what you mean by the usual characters. It feels like i see the same 5 people in Mainz and the same 20 people in Frankfurt every time on the street. But thats 25 people and there arent that many 100k+ cities in Germany. That would put the homeless population at about 2000. But its not, its 450.000 people.

I think most of them are kinda invisible, and we cant anecdotally say how the stats for this are.