A young mother whose second child was born in the winter lives on the childcare allowance and family allowance. The infant’s father has gone into hiding and is not paying. Half of their disposable income goes to the apartment. The mid-thirties is currently a client of the association Wohnplattform. After deducting all fixed costs, the single mother has 200 euros a month for groceries and other things.
The Wohnplattform association takes care of clients like these. Managing director Oliver Jungwirth says it takes three to four months to process requests for help, especially when fathers fail to pay their alimony. “That’s a long time if the money is not enough.”
Jungwirth heads one of six institutions in Upper Austria that help prevent homelessness. “We don’t have a typical clientele, but the problem of not being able to afford one’s own apartment has reached mainstream society,” says Jungwirth.
Long Corona short-time work phases are often the starting point for a spiral that has caused the number of consultations to skyrocket for a few months: In the Linz and Linz-Land support area, the number of consultations in the first three months exceeded the number of the entire past year – after 186 consultations in 2022, this year there were already 203 people who are being looked after by the association, reports Jungwirth.
During the pandemic, many people were on short-time work for longer than expected. During this period of lower earnings, people have not reduced their spending sufficiently, but have used up their savings. The rise in energy prices and rent increases mean that they can no longer finance their apartments. (sib)
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