(de-news.net) – Around this Christmas season, the Federal Working Group on Assistance for the Homeless has contended that the need for safe and reliably heated shelters becomes increasingly urgent as temperatures fall, noting that seasonal shifts consistently intensify existing vulnerabilities among unhoused populations. According to statements attributed to its managing director, Sabine Bösing, prolonged exposure to cold should be understood as an imminent and preventable threat to life, particularly for individuals who lack access to stable protection from the elements.
Each winter, the organization noted, fatalities occur outdoors in a variety of marginal spaces—beneath bridges, in residential doorways, on park benches, or within makeshift encampments that offer little insulation or security. The group further argued that people residing on the streets are disproportionately susceptible to hypothermia because many already experience chronic health conditions, nutritional deficiencies, or severe fatigue, factors that collectively reduce their physiological resilience.
Bösing assessed the existing support infrastructure provided by numerous municipalities as falling short of demonstrated need, emphasizing that emergency services often remain fragmented, limited in capacity, or unavailable during critical nighttime hours. She additionally warned that anticipated reductions in social-security expenditures could intensify the structural drivers of homelessness. They thereby risk compounding the upward trend already documented in recent years.
The group’s research indicates that the number of homeless individuals reached a new peak of approximately one million last year, a figure that underscores the persistence and scale of the problem despite ongoing policy interventions. In the organization’s terminology, individuals lacking either a rental unit or owner-occupied residence were categorized as housing-insecure, a designation intended to capture the broader spectrum of precarious living situations. By contrast, those formally classified as homeless were described as having no consistent access to indoor shelter and therefore living entirely in public spaces, a condition that exposes them most acutely to environmental hazards and social marginalization.