Provide Support

1. Stay in close contact with the accommodation management so that you know immediately who is eligible to move out of the shared accommodation.
2. Warn against dubious offers and the black market. The newspaper ‚Die Zeit‘ reports that many people want to make a profit from the need of the fugitives and offer housing services at horrendous prices – without guarantee.²
3. Ask about the preferred place of residence, apartment size and individual wishes. Warning! Here you should clarify whether the residence requirement (Residenzpflicht) still exists and a domicile condition exists. Create a table for yourself.
4. Ask the refugees to confirm in writing that you may search for an apartment for them.
5. If they receive social benefits, you should ask the Job Centre (for recognized refugees) or the Office for Migration and Integration (for applicants) about the upper limit for rent and deposit that will be paid. If they do not yet receive any benefits, inform yourself about state support and financing options so that the costs are kept within reasonable limits. You will find more on this in the next chapter.
6. The refugee should obtain a residence entitlement certificate so that the claim to a social housing can be asserted. You will find more about this in the next chapter.
7. The refugee should obtain a broker’s certificate from the job center or the responsible authority, which guarantees that the broker’s commission will be paid. If no broker’s license is available, you should point out that if you are successful in finding accommodation with the help of a broker, a commission will be due which will only be paid by the state under certain conditions and up to a certain amount.
8. Check the local press for housing offers and call landlords on behalf of refugees. As explained above, a third, mediating authority is often the key to success.
9. Take a look at online portals.
10. Please inform yourself about general rules of conduct and practices in terms of tenants in Germany. The BAMF provides a brief, general overview under the section Rent and Tenancy Law.³
    The Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich has developed a guideline for volunteers as part of a project of the student body „German as a Foreign Language“. On pages 35-51 you will find lovely designed hints for fugitives on the topic of living. The guide can be downloaded free of charge as a PDF file from the website of the University of  Munich.

In order to be able to claim support in the form of social housing, a so-called housing entitlement certificate is required.

Attention! The residence entitlement certificate is only valid for a limited period of time. Always point out that an extension must be requested beforehand so that there would be no complications.

In addition to the residence entitlement certificate, the provisional residence document (Fiktionsbescheinigung) or the electronic residence permit as well as an income or unemployment benefit notice are also required.

If a person does not yet have an income of their own, the Social Welfare Office will cover the costs of the deposit and rent in the event of a positive decision on the asylum application. If the asylum procedure is still in progress, the process becomes more complicated and the costs can only be claimed from the relevant authority after two years. Even with a regular income, tenants may be entitled to a rent subsidy. Whether this is the case is determined on the basis of the total income, the total rent and the household members. The BAMF even offers a housing allowance calculator for a total of eight federal states. Please take a look at the  BAMF website.⁵

Here you will find various, city-specific guidelines that provide an initial overview.

• • Bündnis Neukölln: On this page you will find many useful tips under section AG Wohnungssuche. A guideline from 2017 can be found here.
  • A guide for the state capital Dresden is provided by the social welfare office itself. See here.
  • The University of Passau also provides information about advice centers, moving in and living in your own home in Germany. The guide is even intended for refugees themselves, but you can certainly find helpful tips here or pass on the information.
  • For the city of Munich, you will find information here on how to prepare for the search of accommodation.
  • If you are looking for more detailed information on the city of Cologne, take a look at the information on accomodation management provided by the city of Cologne itself.
  • A short but informative brochure of the Diakonie Schweinfurt can be found here.

Flüchtlinge Willkommen is an online platform which mediates flat-sharing communities for refugees throughout Germany. In order to ensure that the expectations from both sides are met, the organization is in close and regular contact with landlords and tenants and thus offers a kind of „all-round support“⁶ Everyone – even private persons who would like to make a room available can indicate this there. An external partner working in the field of migration in the respective city then looks for a suitable person and arranges the offer.