Berliner Stadtmission helps homeless people through the heat wave

From BZ/epd

“Should I fill the bottle up?” asks Stefanie Richter from the Berliner Bahnhofsmission Zoo, taking an empty plastic bottle from a man sitting in a wheelchair outside in the blazing sun. Behind the front door is a soda dispenser from which guests of the facility get water.

Many don’t bring bottles with them because “two returnable bottles are a roll”, says the young woman with the bright red painted nails. Anyone who speaks to the manager of the facility receives a friendly reply and is offered a drink.

When it’s hot, the employees of the facility at Bahnhof Zoo not only distribute water, but also baseball caps, sunscreen and umbrellas, which also protect against the sun. Baseball caps of different colors are stacked in a box. The motto of Berlin’s application for the Summer Olympics for the year 2000, “Berlin can only win”, is written on the yellow caps. In 1993, however, Sydney was awarded as the venue. The caps also provide shade almost thirty years later.

Extreme temperatures make life particularly difficult for homeless people, says Richter. They would have no possibility of retreat, could not decide to stay at home or just take a shower. The greatest risk is that they take too little liquid and fall asleep under the influence of alcohol in the sun.

In the past, volunteers would sometimes carry people who had fallen asleep in the shade and left lying in the blazing sun to the other side of the street in the shade, says Freya Bulgurcu. When it’s hot, she mixes lemon, apple juice and soda water in the kitchen of the station mission.

“You don’t have a fridge when you live on the street,” explains the shift supervisor. Many are doomed to drink warm beer, she adds, referring to alcoholics among the guests at the evangelical facility. Then she fills apple spritzers into plastic cups and offers them on a tray to the people waiting outside for their lunch. “We always come up with something, we improvise a lot,” says Bulgurcu with a beaming smile.

On this day there is natural yoghurt and red fruit jelly from the donations collected by the Berliner Tafel for dessert. The people standing in line half in the sun, half in the shade rejoice. “With lots of sugar,” says the cheerful shift manager. “It always has to be particularly sweet for our guests.” Melons are also often served in summer.

When it’s hot, not only the façade and the street in front of the station mission are hosed down to cool things down. T-shirts are also moistened. “There is a lack of public drinking fountains and access to water,” complains Richter.

People affected by homelessness usually wear dark clothes “so that you don’t see the dirt,” says the head of the station mission. In summer, on the other hand, white T-shirts are particularly popular.

Alex is standing in line and is wearing a thick jacket despite the summer temperatures. Everything he owns is contained in his three pockets. He misses drinks and showers the most. “That’s the worst,” says the 48-year-old. For him it would be a luxury to be able to change clothes “so as not to stink too much”.

For Dimitri from Moldova, the worst thing about the heat is the dirt. He particularly lacks clean water and healthy food, says the 32-year-old.

Barbara Breuer from the city mission, which runs the station mission, says some parishes roam the streets with handcarts to distribute water and sunscreen. She saw how a man with a severe sunburn initially rejected the cream that was offered. He said he didn’t want to take anything away from her and only accepted the sunscreen when she assured him that the cream was especially for him.