Europacity - Senate will sue for unbuilt social housing
The Berlin Senate intends to legally compel investors to offer 215 social housing units in Europacity, Moabit. A lawsuit is being prepared against the current landowner and her business partner from 2016 to enforce the rent price and occupancy obligations, stated a spokesperson for the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing.
Land Berlin agreed with an investor in 2016 that the latter would offer not only freely available apartments but also 215 apartments with social binding, i.e., for people with little money at low rents, in the Heidestraße area north of the main station. However, it has now been established that such social housing units do not exist – and the property no longer belongs to the original business partner of the state of Berlin.
"It is of central importance for the Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing that the ownership of the property was transferred against the contractual agreements without the consent of Berlin City in 2021," said the spokesperson.
The responsible departments of the Senate Department for Urban Development did not learn of the deal. According to the spokesperson, they only became aware of it about three weeks ago through public statements by an initiative and then investigated the matter.
The Left speaks of a scandal
The Left criticized the Senate. "We urgently expect clarification as to why the public and we, the parliamentarians, only learned of this matter through the media," declared the spokesperson for Rent and Housing of the Left faction, Niklas Schenker.
"The Senate Administration has obviously looked on idly for almost a year as the investor refused to build the urgently needed social housing units in Heidestraße," he thought. "The Land Berlin was misled. To refuse to build social housing while many Berliners and Berliners are desperately searching for an affordable apartment is a scandal and must have serious consequences."
Discussion about an email
A representative of the owner told the RBB "Abendschau" that they had sent an email to the head of the housing construction office at the Senate in October 2023 with the note that they saw no obligation to build social housing due to the lack of a binding contract. They had offered talks. No one reacted.
The spokesperson for the Senate Department for Urban Development replied that an organization that was not a contractual partner had sent an email to an employee who was not responsible in the fall of 2023. "The department responsible for the urban planning contract Heidestraße had no knowledge of this." They only became aware of it through public statements at a summer festival in the Heidestraße and dealt with it then. They had therefore not been inactive.
- Despite the Berlin Senate's agreement in 2016 for an investor to provide 215 social housing units in Moabit's Heidestraße area, it has been discovered that these units do not exist, as the property is now owned by a different business partner.
- The Left faction in Berlin's Senate criticized the city administration for not addressing the issue of missing social housing units in Heidestraße, with spokesperson Niklas Schenker calling it a "scandal" that many Berliners are struggling to find affordable housing.
- The spokesperson for the Senate Department for Urban Development clarified that they only became aware of the situation regarding the social housing units in Heidestraße after public statements in the summer of 2023, and they had not been inactive in addressing the issue.
