Violent evacuation in the fight for apartments: tenants of Habersaathstraße 40-48 without electricity and water

Violent evacuation in the fight for apartments: tenants of Habersaathstraße 40-48 without electricity and water

Title: Legal dispute over apartment blocks in Mitte: residents are concerned about their living situation

In the morning after the evacuation campaign, the residents of the Habersaathstraße 40–48 apartment block are still cut off from electricity and water supply in Mitte. Daniel Diekmann, a long -time resident, is in a hopeless situation: his freezer has thawed and the food he bought and frozen in the special offer must be disposed of. But he cannot leave the house because the front doors are closed and he has no key to the new lock. Diekmann is concerned that he could be locked out of his own home.

The apartment block on Habersaathstrasse was built in the last few years of the GDR as a dormitory for Charité employees and sold twice after the turn. The current owner, the Arcadia Estates GBMH, left many apartments empty and only rented nine apartments before the block was occupied by homeless people at the end of 2021. The Mitte district conveyed tolerance, but now the owner is pushing for an excerpt from all residents. Cleaning suits have been submitted, but the demolition permit for the block has already expired.

In a new phase of the conflict, men appeared in black clothes on Wednesday and began to remove windows from the apartments and replace locks. Daniel Diekmann reports that more than 70 electricity meters have been replaced. According to Sebastian Bartels, lawyer at the Berlin Tenants' Association, the men acted "stupid, brazen and also criminal". Bartels currently represents residents of the apartment block in evacuation laws and is confident that the landlord cannot enforce the evacuation.

The tenant association now demands that the politicians in the Mitte district will proceed more against the owner. The house has already been systematically neglected and now measures have to be taken quickly to exchange the locks and restore the power and water supply. The Arcadia Estates has not yet responded to inquiries about the incidents.

Social City Councilor Carsten Spallek (CDU) was on site on Wednesday, while district mayor Stefanie Remlinger (Greens) is on vacation. Negotiations with the owner have already been conducted under Remlinger's predecessor, Stephan von Dassel (also Greens). Green member Ario Mirzaie calls for a round table to be convened with everyone involved. He emphasizes that there should be a usage agreement between the district and the owner. In the negotiations on perspectives for the residents, cost takeover and legal steps.

The left-wing faction in the district requires a more decisive approach and demands that the apartments are confiscated in order to prevent threatening homelessness. However, the district office is skeptical about this claim and points out that people could be accommodated in homeless accommodation. However, these are known to be overloaded, which makes many residents run into the knife.

Despite the current circumstances, there are also positive developments. According to Juri Schaffranek from the homeless aid organization Gangway, many residents who have been living in the house for a year and a half have now been better. Some have found work again or are about to do so. However, the recent removal of the windows gives the reason to assume that this deliberately happened in the absence of the lawyer of the residential initiative.

On Thursday afternoon, the power supply was restored in the house, but the water that flowed from the lines was cold and through brown broth. The residents brought the windows back into the house to prevent further damage. Now the people in Habersaathstraße 40–48 also hope that there will be no rains in Berlin again.