New opportunity house on Alsergrund and new night center with shelters for homeless people
Vienna (OTS) – The additional offers of the 2023/24 winter package ended as planned on May 2nd and the Vienna Homeless Aid’s housing and care offerings will therefore be reduced back to the standard offering of around 6,800 places. At the same time, the Vienna Social Fund (FSW) can announce two new housing and care offers: a new opportunity house on Alsergrund and a new night center in Hernals will open soon.
“With the additional housing and care places in the winter package, we as a city are showing that we are there for people in need in the coldest season. The clear commitment is: Nobody in Vienna has to spend the night on the streets on a winter night because of a lack of somewhere to sleep. The FSW and its partner organizations once again implemented this humanitarian measure for homeless or homeless people in the winter of 2023/2024, with sufficient capacity and particularly low-threshold access. My thanks go to the FSW, its partner organizations and the employees. Together you made it possible for people in need in this city to have a safe winter.”
said City Councilor Peter Hacker.
New night center offers homeless people a place to stay at night
In the summer of 2023, due to the knife attacks on homeless people, nighttime shelters were quickly created by the FSW, including in the Obdach Josi day center. What arose from an emergency situation back then is now becoming a permanent offer in Vienna’s homeless assistance: the FSW will open a new night center in Hernals.
“The evaluation of these measures has shown us that there is a need for a particularly low-threshold nighttime offer.”
, reports Susanne Winkler, FSW managing director. Based on this, the FSW and its subsidiary FSW Obdach have started planning for a night center. “We are pleased that we can start the summer of 2024 with a completely new service from the Vienna Homeless Aid, which has a capacity for 50 people at the same time.”
adds Markus Hollendohner, head of the Vienna Homeless Aid.
New Opportunity House on Alsergrund opens in early summer
The Vienna Homeless Aid’s opportunity houses offer unconditional access to emergency accommodation, day stays and social work support for homeless people. The stay is limited to three months. From the first day in the Opportunity House, we work intensively on a housing perspective. The now ninth chance house will have a capacity of 70 places.
Around 3,000 people took advantage of the additional offer of the 23/24 winter package – 210 places will remain open over the summer
The Vienna Homeless Help Center is constantly developing its broad portfolio of services. Particular attention is paid to the regular evaluation of previous performance and the needs of the target groups. This summer, after the end of the winter package on May 2nd, places will remain open for particularly vulnerable people and families. Together with FSW Obdach and the Johannitern, 210 places for individuals and 28 family places will be available at three locations over the summer until the start of the 24/25 winter package.
Around 3,000 users took advantage of places in the winter package between November 2023 and May 2024. This corresponds to an average overall utilization of around 87%. Peaks in utilization figures were recorded during individual cold periods, but the capacity limits of the winter package were not exceeded.
“The figures for the winter package 23/24 show us that the Vienna Homeless Aid, together with its partner organizations, has once again offered important help on cold winter nights. The tailor-made planning of the winter package and the utilization figures also show that low-threshold access to services from the Vienna Homeless Assistance Service is particularly in demand in the winter months. This is also evident from the good utilization of the partner organizations’ warming rooms. Around 39,000 meals were served in the warming rooms this season. The key figures and findings from the winter package will also be incorporated into the further planning of measures for homeless people this year.”
says Susanne Winkler, FSW Managing Director, taking stock.
The winter package of the Vienna Homeless Assistance Fund of the Vienna Social Fund (FSW) offers additional capacity for homeless people in emergency accommodation and warming rooms every year in the winter months, from November to the beginning of May.
The FSW coordinated and financed the last winter package 2023/2024 and implemented it with the partner organizations Arbeiter-Samariterbund Wien, Caritas Wien, Johanniter Wien, FSW Obdach, Volkshilfe Wien and Vienna Red Cross. The winter package made it possible to provide around 1,000 places in 13 emergency shelters and 3 warming rooms in nine districts of the city in addition to the regular year-round services offered by the Vienna Homeless Help Center.
Regular year-round offer from the Vienna Homeless Help Center
In Vienna, people without shelter or housing receive the best possible support and care. The Vienna Homeless Aid, which is anchored in the FSW, works together with more than 30 partner organizations to offer advice and support as well as suitable places to stay, sleep and live. In total, the FSW finances around 6,800 residential and care places throughout the year as part of its regular offering (excluding winter package measures). Of these, more than 600 places are in opportunity houses. They offer homeless people particularly low-threshold access to accommodation, advice and clarification of perspectives all year round from the first day of use and have a significant impact on the perpetuation of homelessness. In 2022, 12,370 people took advantage of the diverse offerings offered by the Vienna Homeless Help Center. The city of Vienna spent around 120 million euros on this last year.
Questions & Contact:
Julia Riedler
Press spokesperson for the Vienna Social Fund
Tel.: + 43 676 8289 20924
E-Mail: presse@fsw.at