According to the public prosecutor’s office, it will be in Hamburg on January 23rd another homeless person died. The 44-year-old was in the winter emergency program. This means that 15 homeless people have died in the city since the beginning of the year.
“The basic problem is people’s exhaustion. The fact that people are already weakened by the cold and the wet,” says Ronald Kelm, who works as a volunteer at the health mobile. The homeless also do not have sufficient access to medical care, he says. “The offers that are available are only open for hours.”
Every Sunday the health mobile is at the main train station or on the Reeperbahn and looks after 20 to 30 people, says Kelm. “It wasn’t until the weekend that we had to admit two people to the hospital again.”
According to a census from 2024, around 3,800 homeless people live in Hamburg. The opening times are a constant point of contention of the winter emergency program with around 700 seats. People have to do this leave during the day. An exception was made only around the snowstorm “Ellie” from January 5th to 12th.
“It is not good for people’s health if they have to go out during the day,” says CDU social politician Andreas Grutzek. “People need to be accommodated safely these days.” A winter emergency program must be open around the clock.
That struck first Homeless magazine Hinz and Kunz Alarmbecause there were eleven deaths after just two weeks of January. Grutzek then made one Inquiry to the Senate. The answer to this shows that from January 13th people had to leave the emergency program again during the day. Only homeless people who were acutely ill were allowed to stay.
Grutzek also asked the Senate how many dead homeless people had been found in shelters and on the streets since the beginning of the year. This reported ten deaths for the period from January 1st to 16th, three of which occurred in the winter emergency program, two in the hospital, one in custody and four in public places.
However, according to the more recent figures from the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office, 15 homeless people had already died by January 23rd. As a result, four people each died in a hospital or in an emergency shelter. Another case involved a woman with no fixed address who was staying with a relative.
On average, the dead lived to be only 46 years old
The public prosecutor’s office also reports four deaths in public spaces. A homeless man was found dead in a tent on Lombardsbrücke, the spokeswoman reports. Another person apparently laid down on a track with suicidal intent. Another dead man was found thinly clothed in the basement of a backyard. Since the man has not yet been identified, it is not yet clear whether he was homeless. Another homeless man probably died in an accident in an underground car park. And two homeless people died in apartments where they could live temporarily.
The prosecutor’s office also provided information about the age and nationality of the victims. Five of the dead were German. For two of them this information is not known. Of the others, four had Polish, two Latvian, one Lithuanian and one Syrian nationality. The age of 13 people is known. One lived to the age of 65, while four died very young at the ages of 29, 31, 36 and 39. On average, the dead lived to be only 46 years old.
“Hinz&Kunzt” calls for regular monitoring
“We are very shocked that the number of people dying on the streets or in emergency shelters is growing,” says Hinz&Kunzt-Managing Director Jörn Sturm. “It makes us helpless because no additional offers are created because these numbers are not officially collected by the responsible social welfare authority,” he says. These would always have to be laboriously determined through inquiries. Instead, the city needs regular monitoring, in which the number of deaths of all homeless people is recorded and the measures are adapted to the situation.
In its response, Hamburg’s Senate expressed “deep regret” over the death of the homeless. But although Hamburg’s standards for emergency overnight accommodation are at the top in a national comparison, some of the homeless people prefer the streets. The limited perception of one’s own health also plays a role. This is an incentive for street social work to promote acceptance of the help through direct discussions.
However, as part of the winter emergency program, there is still the option to accommodate people without a right to a place to sleep at night “warming room” to be referred to with seats. According to the social authorities, this “offer” applies if people do not take advantage of their “self-help” or “return options” and refuse to cooperate.