Image: Social Housing Service
22 people who don’t have a roof over their heads find a place to sleep in the Wels emergency shelter on Eisenhowerstrasse. Six beds are reserved for women. The social facility has been at capacity for weeks, and what is unusual is that all of the women’s places are also full.
There is also a huge rush at the day center on Salzburger Straße. Twice as many care packages with food donations were given out there as last year. “We now have people with us who were not otherwise our clientele; we have arrived in the lower middle class,” says Bettina Reichhold, managing director of the “E37 Social Housing Service” in Wels. Many would no longer be able to make ends meet with their income due to inflation. “These people tell us that they can no longer afford the apartment, the higher food and electricity costs, and ask if we can support them,” says Reichhold.
The social facility also welcomes private donations. Even if there is something left over from the Christmas or New Year’s Eve party, people at the social facility are happy about the best leftovers.
The hesitation to come into contact with people on the margins of society is very successfully addressed in the day center with the “Social Cooking” project. School classes, groups of friends, clubs or companies cook a warm lunch for the homeless.
In Wels there are around ten to 15 homeless people with mental illnesses who do not accept the offer of the emergency shelter and sleep on the street or in an old car. “We have sporadic contact with them when they come to the day center, the number of unreported cases is probably slightly higher,” says Reichhold.
On Christmas Eve we celebrate together in the emergency shelter and in the day center with bratwursts, a cold plate and gifts. (krai)
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Source: Nachrichten
