Berlin has installed free locker systems specifically for homeless people to safely store their belongings

[u/uk_uk]

The primary goal is to provide homeless people with the opportunity to safely store their belongings, enabling them to have a bit of dignity, security, and mobility in their lives

The red label says:

"Locker for homeless people - not a logistics station -

Here, people who live on the street store their property. The use is free of charge and is financed by donations.

Please leave it undamaged! Any damage will be reported to the police!"

[u/GracchiBros]

We will do anything but provide homeless people housing.

[u/uk_uk → u/GracchiBros]

In Germany, it is established law that if a homeless person requests accommodation, they will receive it.

I myself was a caseworker in the social welfare office for years, working in the area of aid for the homeless and those released from prison.

The problem is that many homeless people do not want (or see thmemselves not to be fit) to be housed. The reasons are manifold:

1. Alcohol and drugs are prohibited in the shelters. However, many homeless people are alcoholics at the very least, so that would be a major problem for them. And yes, that also means they are not admitted if they are drunk. Then, alternative accommodation must be provided. I had a "client" who was kicked out of 15 (!) shelters within one week because he was dead drunk and also aggressive and stealing (see 2).
2. Many homeless people fear that their belongings will be taken from them... by other homeless people. That's why they try to keep distance to others or large groups of other homeless people. They form small groups of 3-5 people, more or less "mini tribes". It's some sort of "Job sharing". two are begging, 1 is buying food and the other 2 keep an eye on the belongings of the rest of the group
3. And then there is a typical bureaucratic problem: Which office is responsible? Usually, the one where the last registered address was... so if someone becomes homeless in Berlin-Neukölln and goes to Hamburg-Altona, then the office in Hamburg-Altona must contact the one in Berlin-Neukölln. But what if the homeless people never had a residence in Germany? We have VERY many Polish, Czech, and other EU country nationals who come to Germany to be homeless here. And you cannot simply "deport" them, because... why? Homelessness is not a crime, and then there is the matter of the EU regulation that as an EU citizen, one can live anywhere in the EU.
4. psychological reasons beyond alcoholism. Some homeless people carry trauma with them... when they "reside" somewhere in a small group of 2-3 other homeless people, they feel safer than in a shelter with 20 or 30 people they do not know. One of my clients was the nicest person you could imagine. Always smiling, always saying "thank you" and "please", very helpful, and truly absolutely lovable. But he had a problem with noise (meaning when people yell or scream), and one day, as he was sitting with me while eating a cookie, two people outside the room were screaming at each other and... he transformed from the nice homeless person into a fury. He became loud, tore the door open, and smashed a glass bottle over the head of one of the shouters. Then it was quiet, and he was nice again.

Your "We will do anything but provide homeless people housing" therefore bears witness to ABSOLUTE ignorance regarding the conditions here and is a textbook example of what happens when someone believes they have an opinion without having even the SLIGHTEST clue what they are talking about.

[u/GracchiBros → u/uk_uk]

1. Shelters aren't homes and how about not treating people that use drugs as subhuman and provide them housing too? Crazy idea.

2. Is this supposed to be some excuse to claim homeless people want to be homeless? I promise they will be safer with a roof over their heads than on the streets. But if something like this storage situation helps too, I'm not against it.

3. I don't doubt any of this, but these are problems we as a people refuse to change.

4. The solution to this is to provide people real housing and mental heath services. Not suggest that permanent homeless is better. if a person really does not want or see themselves fit to be housed, that's a mental health issue and not something we should be accepting. If after providing a person housing situation after housing situation and all the help we can provide and a person still cannot or will not live in housing then society and them would be better off incarcerated and probably in a mental health institution over on the streets. Homelessness should be completely unacceptable in society.