Special refugee accommodation for men opens in Ingolstadt

In the red building with the colorful parrot on the facade, hotel guests once rose. Refugees will be accommodated there in two months. And only those who have very special prerequisites – a special luggage, so to speak. In the former ARA hotel in the northeast of the Upper Bavarian city Ingolstadt If men are to be accommodated that cannot live in a conventional shared accommodation because they need a single room due to physical or psychological problems. At least that’s how the representatives of the Upper Bavaria government, who came to Ingolstadt on Friday for an open day in the new accommodation. You also say it is the first facility of this kind in Bavaria. The citizens who had previously expressed concerns do not calm this down. On the contrary. You are now more concerned.

When the Ingolstadt residents learned that a new shared accommodation was planned, they felt that they came up with their heads. The government of Upper Bavaria rented the building from a private hand in November, the mayor at the time approved the conversion to the city council, as was accused of. The citizens then promised that the government would be committed to the fact that families and children in particular are quartered in the former hotel. And now the citizens experience almost casually at an open house that everything will come about very different. « You don’t know what these men have experienced, » says a woman with a worrying face. She fears that « mentally ill » could now move into her immediate surroundings. In mid -July, the first refugees from the Upper Bavarian anchor centers are to be laid here – then if the community kitchen and the last furniture should also be delivered. It will mainly be men from Afghanistan, Yemen, Turkey, the Congo and Jordan. The woman calms a little that a security company will be on site in the first three months. A nurse will also be in the accommodation at times. Likewise, a caretaker who, after announcement, checks the rooms every now and then whether everything is fine. And an administrative manager.

Refugees need medical certificates for accommodation in new Ingolstadt accommodation

Are the fears justified? Will the refugees really run a danger? « No, » says a spokesman for the government of Upper Bavaria clearly. « We will not accommodate people who are dangerous here. If you have a recognizable need for treatment, you will also be supervised in a corresponding facility, » he assures. The men who are supposed to stay in Ingolstadt are people with a « special need for protection » who « need calm », which could be retraumatized, for example, if they are accommodated in rooms with many other people. For other vulnerable groups there are already special accommodations in Bavaria, such as one for women with and without children and in Wasserburg one for refugees with disabilities.

In order to get a room in the new accommodation in Ingolstadt, the men need a medical certificate, the government spokesman continues. The refugees would not live in luxury in the former hotel. You would have to cook, wash and clean yourself as in any other shared accommodation. There will be a kitchen with several electric herds and work surfaces, the washing machines are already available in a separate room. « It looks like in any other refugee accommodation. It has nothing to do with a hotel, » emphasizes the Bavarian State Government’s integration officer, Karl Straub, who is also in Ingolstadt on Friday.

The refugee men are mostly in single rooms in the former ARA hotel

It shouldn’t look just as exactly as in any other shared accommodation in the former hotel. The entrance area still resembles a reception. The common rooms, some of which are designed with parquet, partly designed with carpeting are still characterized by signs that are names on such as « Saal Pisa ». The representatives of the government report that the hotel could not be changed so that the hotel could turn into the current accommodation. It would have made little sense to change the existing structures, says Simon Untergruber, head of the area of ​​asylum seekers at the government of Upper Bavaria. The accommodation now offers 96 single rooms, two double rooms, two three-bed rooms and a six-bed room-each with their own bathroom. The facility is « spartan, but neat, » said Untergruber. Specifically, this means that in the single rooms there is a bed, a closet, a table and a chair on a few square meters. The bathrooms have a toilet, a sink and a shower.

Nevertheless, the citizens find that the refugees have it better here than some residents in an old people’s home, who would sometimes wait in vain for a single room, as a man says. A woman says: « Many Germans cannot find an apartment. It just causes trouble. » The Ingolstadt residents still seem ready to come to terms with the situation. « We have to – or should – be able to cope with it, » says one. The skepticism towards those who come there remains.