- CDU leader: No more big housing
According to CDU faction leader Dirk Stettner, further large-scale refugee accommodations in Berlin are unavoidable. However, he advocates for new approaches. "As long as the federal government doesn't change its asylum policy and doesn't stop or at least significantly reduce the high influx of asylum seekers, we will continue to need large-scale accommodations," he told the German Press Agency. "In doing so, we want to develop communal settlements - for refugees and for Berliners who are urgently seeking affordable housing."
Stettner calls for change in special building rights
To make this possible, the traffic light government at the federal level needs to amend paragraph 246 of the Building Code, Stettner said. "That is, expand the special building rights so that we can not only create housing for refugees more quickly, but also for those who are already here."
"With such special building rights, we can take over many idle industrial areas and say, 'We're going to build 4,000 apartments here,'" the CDU politician explained. "Of these, 1,000 will be used temporarily for refugees, and 3,000 will be for Berliners. We'll have them prefabricated and built modularly." This would make affordable housing possible quickly. "But it will only work if the traffic light finally creates the conditions at the federal level," Stettner admitted.
Stettner: Tegel will still be needed
He does not consider it realistic to dispense with large-scale accommodations soon: "There were always some left-wingers who said, 'We'll dissolve the large accommodation in Tegel,' but that's completely unfounded," he emphasized.
Social Senator Cansel Kiziltepe (SPD) had also advocated for increasingly relying on smaller, decentralized accommodation options. "We will probably not have a single one of the 6,100 places in decentralized accommodations that have been decided for Berlin by 2025," Stettner warned.
"If everything goes well, the accommodations will start at the end of next year. Many are only planned for 2026." He already has big question marks for the year 2024. "We will have to make great efforts to accommodate everyone before the winter - and that's in large accommodations and in pensions. Nowhere else." Currently, there are around 80 refugee arrivals per day, around 2,400 per month.
CDU politician calls for new large-scale accommodations
"Then we have the year 2025, and we have twelve months with an average of 2,000 to 2,400 people coming, if the numbers stay as they are," Stettner explained. "That's why we still need the large accommodations - and even more large-scale accommodations on top of that."
The refugee accommodation in Tegel will also still be needed beyond the year 2025. "Anything else would be a miracle, on the contrary, we will have to further expand Tegel," said Stettner. "And we're talking about thousands of new places. We will first expand 1,800 places in Tempelhof," he announced. "We also have to do that urgently - and also rent thousands of places in hotels."
The European Union could potentially play a role in addressing the refugee crisis by providing financial aid or policy guidance to help alleviate the pressure on cities like Berlin. Without such assistance, Stettner believes that the European Union's member states will continue to require large-scale refugee accommodations.
Given the ongoing need for large-scale refugee accommodations in Berlin, the CDU politician suggests that the European Union could also explore opportunities for joint projects, such as the development of communal settlements that would provide housing not only for refugees but also for Berliners in need of affordable housing.
