Move into shared accommodation started

The city of Jena has opened another shared accommodation facility to house Ukrainian refugees. Up to 70 refugees can be accommodated in Juri-Gagarin-Straße. The first 26 people were able to move in this week.

Eberhard Hertzsch, Head of Social Affairs and thus Head of the Ukraine Working Group of the City of Jena, is pleased and relieved: "Our aim is to ease the temporary accommodation in gymnasiums and sometimes precarious living conditions with private individuals as quickly as possible and to offer the refugees longer-term housing prospects."

Mayor and Head of Urban Development Christian Gerlitz adds: "Thanks to the unprecedented cooperation of the various departments and municipal enterprises, but above all thanks to the support of the city's citizens, who have made significant donations to help furnish the Admiralsvilla, we can now hand over the previously derelict building in good condition after a very short conversion period."

The teams from Kommunale Immobilien Jena (KIJ) Kommunalservice Jena (KSJ), the Departments of Social Affairs and Urban Development and other partners worked together for around two months to prepare for the refugees to move in. The work on the building was coordinated by Michael Meinz from the urban development department.

In addition to manual work, there were also many administrative tasks in the background

Additional sanitary facilities had to be installed and tiling work carried out. The heating system was checked and put back into full operation.

Tilo Peißker from KIJ adds: "As the building is to be used as shared accommodation in the coming years, the requirements of the Thuringian Shared Accommodation and Social Care Ordinance must be implemented. This requires a formal building application with a fire protection concept, which KIJ is preparing in parallel to the commissioning work. We are currently working on a long-term contract with the Ernst Abbe Foundation as the owner of the property to lease the building. We are grateful that we were able to rely on a network of reliable partners for all the tasks that had to be completed at short notice."

Much of the equipment was provided by furniture donations

In addition to procuring and installing the kitchen, it was above all the furnishing of the rooms that took time. Due to supply bottlenecks, which were exacerbated by the consequences of the war, beds and mattresses could not be delivered on time. Help came in the form of a furniture donation campaign organized by the KSJ.

KSJ Managing Director Uwe Feige sums up: "We were able to take over 150 pieces of furniture and numerous household items into the Admiralsvilla.Thanks to the high level of donations, we were also able to hand out around 100 kg of electrical appliances to the Umsonstladen, various items of clothing to the Bürgerstiftung and furniture and household items directly to families. I would like to express my sincere thanks to the employees who managed the donation campaign with great commitment alongside their actual day-to-day business. "

On-site support provided by the City of Jena's social services team

The team from the social services department is also providing further support on site.

Head Barbara Wolf explains: "It is enormously helpful for the refugees to have a guide on site at all times who can answer any questions they may have about life in Jena. We are happy that we can deploy a social worker from our team in the house who has already worked in other facilities in the past. We have also organized 24/7 security."

Current situation of refugees in Jena

1154refugees from Ukraine are registered in Jena and recorded in the central register (as of 12.05.2022). These include 125 children up to and including the age of 6, 225 children aged 7 to 16 and 141 people aged 17-25. The largest proportion is made up of people aged between 26 and 65 (507). 86 people are over 65 years old.

The initial reception center in Göschwitz is currently occupied by 65 people and has around 90 places.

In April, one floor of a nursing home in Jena-Lobeda was used for refugees and offers space for up to 90 people. A further 150 refugees will soon be able to find accommodation in the former women's clinic. The city of Jena has also started to build container housing units on the POM Arena site. Accommodation for a further 90 people is being built here.