Berlin’s system for housing the homeless is highly vulnerable to abuse, according to investigations by the newspaper Tagesspiegel. Private companies run many shelters with substantial profits, yet residents and nearby neighbors complain about garbage and vermin. “The business of these accommodations is a goldmine” said Hannes Rehfeldt, a CDU social councilman from Neukölln, speaking to Tagesspiegel in its Monday edition. He added that the sector is riddled with “black sheep” and that operating homeless accommodations purely for profit contradicts their purpose.
Berlin takes a unique route: in the capital, most homeless people are housed by commercial providers. Nationwide, however, two‑thirds of homeless people live in municipal facilities.
When the Senate Department for Social Affairs was asked how many people were currently in Berlin’s homeless shelters, it could not provide a figure, as the city has not collected its own data. Tagesspiegel’s calculations estimate that in January 2025 about 39,000 people were legally housed in shelter units in Berlin, roughly 11,000 of whom were children and adolescents.
