Rising rents have not student quarters. A creative way out: students live rent-free for people in need of everyday help. But it’s not just about the money.
The hedge is accurately trimmed. The lawn is mowed. The rose Bush still bears single pink flowers, although the leaves are already fallen off a long time ago. “Sometimes I work here for two hours, without that I really see a difference,” says Oliver Baumgärtel and also points in the garden. “But all I can do, together we will take care of that,” says Marianne Appolt. “This is important to me. So I can say at the end: Have we not made the beautiful?”
Baumgärtel is related to neither Appolts gardener still with her. You are roommates. Two years ago, the Student moved into the house of the Pensioner in Bergisch Gladbach, on the outskirts of Cologne. “As I’m drawn for the study from Bavaria here, I had difficulties to find a room,” says the 21-Year-old. On the Internet, he found only much more expensive or dubious offers, even in the Dorm, he was lucky. Then, he came across the advertisement of Marianne Appolt.
Trust instead of purpose community
Now Baumgärtel lives with her in the first floor. He has a niche, a spacious bedroom with a balcony, a private bathroom and a kitchen. Rent: help in house and garden. In the specific case of mowing the lawn, vacuuming is, window cleaning and lift heavy things. He has to pay only the additional costs: around 100 euros per month. The framework of the project “Housing for help”: For every square meter of housing there is a hour support in daily life per month. Care services are excluded.
Heike Bermond (left) and Sandra Wiegeler have taught in Cologne is already over 600 residential partnerships
“I had problems with the feet, although I need a as a Dance teacher,” says Marianne Appolt. To save her legs, she had, in the truest sense of the word shorter. “I was no longer able to provide for my garden. I have always done alone.” In the Cologne Church newspaper, you read an article about the Initiative. “My husband and my children are no longer in the house. Space so there is enough,” the 83-Year-old.
About 80 of such residential communities in Cologne per year. Mostly the elderly, log in – even though the project is open to all, have a room available, says Sandra Wiegeler. You are in charge of the project at the University of Cologne. Need for affordable housing there is in the city. 50,000 students and 4500 seats were in the student dormitories, so the pedagogue.
So that works out living together of dissimilar pairs, one had to trust, says Pensioner Marianne Appolt. “When I started to inquire me about this project, have advised me not my Friends.” At least the doors should you always finish. “I’ve done a but never. We were immediately likeable.” For the first Meeting Baumgärtel took his mother. A few days later he moved in. “I felt here in the house right away. I grew up in the countryside, in a detached house. Between my home and here there is no big difference.”
Mediation of unequal pairs
“I often compare this with a matchmaking. First and foremost, the chemistry must be right,” says Lilian Brandt, laughing. It gives students of the University of Bonn. Now there is “Live help” in over 30 German cities. After the success in major cities such as Cologne, the project combines now also in smaller cities.
Oliver Baumgärtel: ‘ll be “at home” instead of the overpriced Rent
Before it between the Interested spark, but just clarify a few organizational things. First, detailed questionnaires need to be clarified to be filled, where basic criteria, such as Smoking or non-Smoking, pet allergies, or the travel time to the University. In the house the living room and the host are taken under the magnifying glass. After that, people skills are in demand. “For some, I just know instantly that it fits,” says Brandt.
The financial interest should never stand in the foreground. “I make the students clear that this is not a cheap room rental. You need to be ready to spend your leisure time with these people.”
Remedy to be alone
Many do not shrink from the but. “A study of beginners who are without parents in a new city, often a family connection,” says Brandt. Other students would aspire to careers in the social sector. For the experience, with vulnerable people to live together, and it was a special addition.
Lilian Brandt: Many older people are well cared for, but lonely
Some hosts need actually little support in everyday life. They just wanted to be less alone. Thus, the organizers would be faced more and more often. This is also reflected in the type of help asked. “We already had one that was looking for someone to Look at the common musikantenstadl. Others don’t want to play Ludo or on a regular basis with someone, go for a walk,” says Brandt.
Also in the household Appolt-Baumgärtel is looking forward not only to the garden on the subject of additional attention. “I am eight times a grandma,” says Marianne Appolt. “But my grandchildren are scattered all over the world. Oliver, my substitute grandchildren.”