November 23, 2022, 4:27 am | Read time: 4 minutes
Even though it’s worse in other EU countries, many people in Germany have too little space at home. Statistics clearly show who finds it particularly difficult to secure adequate housing.
About 8.6 million people in Germany live in overcrowded apartments–more than ten percent of the population. Single parents and people in big cities are particularly affected, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. Welfare organizations see an urgent need for action: “Affordable, adequate housing is one of the major social issues of our time,” says Rolf Rosenbrock, chairman of the Paritätischer Gesamtverband.
The Risk Increases with the Number of Children
In households with children, the so-called overcrowding rate was 15.9 percent in 2021, according to the statistics. The risk increases with the number of children. Thirty point seven percent of families with three or more children lived in too-small apartments. It was 28.4 percent for single parents and their children. In contrast, the overcrowding rate for households without children was only 6.5 percent.
The data is based on initial results from a 2021 survey on income and living conditions in the EU. According to the underlying definition, an apartment is considered overcrowded “if it has too few rooms relative to the number of people,” as the statisticians summarized. The number of rooms required depends, for example, on the age and gender of the children.
For children under 12, a shared room is sufficient. If they are the same gender, this is also adequate up to age 17; for boys and girls between 12 and 17, two rooms are necessary; over 18, the child must have their own room.
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Overcrowding More Common Among Minors Than Seniors
The housing shortage often affects children and adolescents. The overcrowding rate among minors (17.8 percent) was about six times higher than among seniors (3 percent). According to the definition, a one-person household can also be overcrowded if there is no separate living and bedroom. In 2021, this applied to nearly twelve percent of one-person households.
Housing is particularly scarce in cities. The proportion of people living in overcrowded apartments was 15.5 percent in larger cities. In smaller cities (8.6 percent) or rural areas (4.9 percent), the proportion was significantly lower.
“We mainly have a shortage of small and very large apartments,” says Stefan Kunz, a specialist in homelessness assistance and social counseling at Caritas: small ones for single parents, large ones for families with many children. In big cities and increasingly in rural areas, the cost problem is also a factor. “There is simply a lack of affordable housing.” The situation is particularly difficult for “vulnerable groups” such as people with a migration background or the unemployed–categories not captured by the statistics.
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Significant Need for Catch-Up in Housing Construction
To counteract the shortage of affordable housing, the federal government set a goal of building 400,000 new apartments annually, including 100,000 social housing units. Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) admitted at the “Day of the Housing Industry” in Berlin this week that there is a need for catch-up. The industry has not been able to achieve the current new construction target, even under good conditions.
A shortage of skilled workers, material shortages, high interest rates, and construction costs have made the federal government’s goals “unattainable,” said Axel Gedaschko, president of the Federal Association of German Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW), at the conference.
According to Caritas representative Kunz, sufficient social housing can only be realistically achieved through subsidies. He sees the states as having a greater responsibility. The federal government provides a lot of money, the municipalities see the need, “but I find the states less committed.”
And creating enough social housing alone “will not be enough,” says Rosenbrock from the Paritätischer: “We need a swift implementation of the new nonprofit housing and finally a legal regulation that more effectively limits rent explosions.”
On average, across all 27 EU member states, the overcrowding rate was higher at 17.1 percent than in Germany. The most people living in overcrowded apartments in 2021 were in Latvia (41.3 percent) and Romania (40.0 percent), and the fewest in Malta (2.9 percent) and Cyprus (2.3 percent).
with material from dpa