The times when the Rheingau-Taunus district terminated lease after lease in order to get rid of vacant and no longer needed accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers are over.

Now the district administration is again looking for accommodation that he can rent as cheaply as possible.

Oliver Bock

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Rheingau-Taunus district and for Wiesbaden.

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The turning point can be attributed primarily to developments in Afghanistan. In the fourth quarter of last year alone, 210 people were assigned to the district. He was only notified of 195, and this number is well above the 153 people who had to be accommodated in the whole of 2020. The second year of the pandemic marked the low point of a multi-year development in the number of asylum seekers.

In 2016, the district had to accommodate 1,533 people, after 1,702 in the crisis year 2015. In 2017 there were 571 and in 2018 only 379. In 2019 there were 307 people.

In the nine months between January and September 2021, 204 people finally came, the total number climbing to 414 by December.

This development is not entirely surprising in that the Hessian initial reception facilities have reported a sharp increase in the number of residents since September 2021.

appeal to the population

With a short time lag, this affects the allocation figures for the Rheingau-Taunus district. With a view to the "global migration situation", the head of the specialist service for refugee service and migration in the Bad Schwalbacher Kreishaus, Maria Alisch, assumes that "we will also have around 200 assignments in the first two quarters of the current year".

This pushes the district to its capacity. The existing space can still be expanded. Because of the pandemic with the associated, sharply increasing number of infections, Alisch wants to avoid “dense accommodation” in the few large collective accommodations in the district as far as possible. The consequence is an appeal to the population: apartments as well as larger single-family and multi-family houses are wanted for the accommodation of refugees. The apartments should be between 50 and 120 square meters. Only recognized refugees should be accommodated there. Above all, the families of the so-called Afghan local forces, who supported the German troops and German organizations during the Afghanistan mission and are therefore regarded as endangered in the country.They are assigned directly to the county by the state. In addition, the district is looking for larger houses in order to set up communal accommodation for asylum seekers there. These residential properties are rented directly by the district.

An ambitious project

In view of the housing situation in large parts of the Rheingau and Untertaunus, this is an ambitious project.

"Of course we know about the difficulties of finding suitable and inexpensive housing," says Alisch, and still hopes for the support of the citizens, who can send their offers to the e-mail address Wohnungs_fuer_Gefluechtete@Rheingau-Taunus.de.

The specialist service also answers questions at this address.

In total, the district operates nine communal accommodations of different sizes with a total of 1227 places in six of the 17 municipalities.

However, the leases for the former Tannenwald Clinic Bad Schwalbach with 236 places and the former Bundeswehr medical center in Lorch with 193 places will expire this year.

However, they should be extended if possible on more favorable terms than before.

There are also three communal houses with a total of nine apartments in Aarbergen, Idstein and Waldems.

At the end of October, 935 refugees were being accommodated in district and municipal shelters.

Of these, 123 have already been recognised.

You should therefore actually look for your own accommodation.

At that time, 777 refugees were still in the recognition process or were considered “tolerated”.