Germany Confiscating Homes to Use for Migrants

[rmstock]

Hamburg, Germany. (Image source: Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images)
Germany Confiscating Homes to Use for Migrants
"A massive attack on the property rights"
by Soeren Kern
May 14, 2017 at 5:00 am  #da5724
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10352/germany-migrants-property-rights

    * In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities confiscated six
      residential units in the Hamm district near the city center. A
      trustee appointed by the city is now renovating the properties and
      will rent them — against the will of the owner — to tenants chosen
      by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina Weiland said that all
      renovation costs will be billed to the owner of the properties.
   
    * Similar expropriation measures have been proposed in Berlin, the
      German capital, but abandoned because they were deemed
      unconstitutional.
   
    * Some Germans are asking what is next: Will authorities now limit
      the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those with
      large apartments to share them with strangers?
   
   Authorities in Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, have begun
   confiscating private dwellings to ease a housing shortage — one that
   has been acutely exacerbated by Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to
   allow more than two million migrants into the country in recent years.
   
   City officials have been seizing commercial properties and converting
   them into migrant shelters since late 2015, when Merkel opened German
   borders to hundreds of thousands of migrants from Africa, Asia and the
   Middle East. Now, however, the city is expropriating residential
   property units owned by private citizens.
   
   In an unprecedented move, Hamburg authorities recently confiscated six
   residential units in the Hamm district near the city center. The units,
   which are owned by a private landlord, are in need of repair and have
   been vacant since 2012. A trustee appointed by the city is now
   renovating the properties and will rent them — against the will of the
   owner — to tenants chosen by the city. District spokeswoman Sorina
   Weiland said that all renovation costs will be billed to the owner of
   the properties.
   
   The expropriation is authorized by the Hamburg Housing Protection Act
   (Hamburger Wohnraumschutzgesetz), a 1982 law that was updated by the
   city's Socialist government in May 2013 to enable the city to seize any
   residential property unit that has been vacant for more than four
   months.
   
   The forced lease, the first of its kind in Germany, is said to be aimed
   at pressuring the owners of other vacant residences in the city to make
   them available for rent. Of the 700,000 rental units in Hamburg,
   somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 (less than one percent) are believed
   to be vacant, according an estimate by the Hamburg Senate.
   
   
   Hamburg, Germany. (Image source: Morris MacMatzen/Getty Images)
   
   Socialists and Greens in Hamburg recently established a "hotline" where
   local residents can report vacant properties. Activists have also
   created a website — Leerstandsmelder (Vacancy Reporter) — to identify
   unoccupied real estate in Hamburg and other German cities.
   
   It remains unclear why the landlord in Hamm left his apartments vacant
   for more than five years. Some have posited that, given the location of
   the properties, the renovation costs may have been too high and
   probably would not have been offset by the rental income.
   
   Others are blaming city officials for not approving more building
   permits to allow for the construction of new residential units. A study
   conducted in 2012 — well before the migrant crisis reached epic
   proportions — forecast that by 2017, Hamburg would have a deficit of at
   least 50,000 rental properties.
   
   In 2016, however, only 2,433 new residential units came onto the
   market, while only 2,290 new building permits were approved, according
   to statistics provided by the City of Hamburg. These numbers were up
   slightly from 2,192 new units and 2,041 new permit approvals in 2015.
   
   In 2012, Hamburg's Socialist government presented a plan to build 6,000
   new residential units per year. The plan never materialized, however,
   because prospective builders were constricted by government-imposed
   rental caps which would have made it impossible for them to even
   recover their construction costs.
   
   Since then, the city has turned to seizing private property to resolve
   its self-inflicted housing crisis.
   
   On October 1, 2015, the Hamburg Parliament (Hamburgische Bürgerschaft)
   approved a new law that allows the city to seize vacant commercial real
   estate (office buildings, retail space and land) and use it to house
   migrants.
   
   City officials said the measure was necessary because, at the time,
   more than 400 new migrants were arriving in Hamburg each day and all
   the existing refugee shelters were full. They said that because the
   owners of vacant real estate refused to make their property available
   to the city on a voluntary basis, the city should be given the right to
   take it by force.
   
   The measure was applauded by those on the left of the political
   spectrum. "We are doing everything we can to ensure that the refugees
   are not homeless during the coming winter," said  Senator Till Steffen
   of the Green Party. "For this reason, we need to use vacant commercial
   properties."
   
   Others have argued that efforts by the state to seize private property
   are autocratic and reek of Communism. "The proposed confiscation of
   private land and buildings is a massive attack on the property rights
   of the citizens of Hamburg," said André Trepoll of the center-right
   Christian Democratic Union (CDU). "It amounts to an expropriation by
   the state." He said the proposed measure is a "law of intimidation"
   that amounts to a "political dam-break with far-reaching implications."
   He added: "The ends do not justify any and all means."
   
   Katja Suding, the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Hamburg, said
   that the proposed law is an "unacceptable crossing of red lines... Such
   coercive measures will only fuel resentment against refugees."
   
   Similar expropriation measures have been proposed in Berlin, the German
   capital, but abandoned because they were deemed unconstitutional.
   
   In November 2015, lawmakers in Berlin considered emergency legislation
   that would have allowed local authorities to seize private residences
   to accommodate asylum seekers. The proposal would have authorized
   police forcibly to enter private homes and apartments without a warrant
   to determine their suitability as housing for refugees and migrants.
   
   The legislation, proposed by Berlin Mayor Michael Müller of the
   center-left Social Democrats (SPD), would have amended Section 36 of
   Berlin's Public Order and Safety Law (Allgemeine Gesetz zum Schutz der
   öffentlichen Sicherheit und Ordnung, ASOG), which currently allows
   police to enter private residences only in extreme instances, to "avert
   acute threats," that is, to fight serious crime. Müller wanted to
   expand the scope for warrantless inspections to include "preventing
   homelessness."
   
   The proposal was kept secret from the public until the leader of the
   Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin, Sebastian Czaja, warned the measure
   would violate the German constitution. He said:
   
     "The plans of the Berlin Senate to requisition residential and
      commercial property without the consent of the owner to accommodate
      refugees is an open breach of the constitution. The attempt by the
      Senate to undermine the constitutional right to property and the
      inviolability of the home must be resolutely opposed."
   
   Since then, both the mayor's office and the Senate appear to have
   abandoned their plans.
   
   Following an investigation, Gunnar Schupelius, a columnist with the
   Berlin newspaper BZ, wrote:
   
     "A strange report made the rounds at the weekend: The Senate would
      authorize the police to enter private homes to house refugees, even
      against the will of the owner. I thought it was only satire, then a
      misunderstanding, because the Basic Law, Article 13, states: 'The
      home is inviolable.'
   
     "So I went on a search for the source of this strange report and
      found it. There is a 'proposal' which the Senate Chancellery
      (Senatskanzlei) has apparently circulated among the senators. The
      Senate Chancellery is another name for the mayor's office. The
      permanent secretary is Björn Böhning (SPD)...
   
     "The proposal is clear: The police can enter private property
      without a court order in order to search for housing for refugees
      when these are threatened with homelessness. You can do that
      'without the consent of the owner.' And not only should the police
      be allowed to do this, but also the regulatory agencies.
   
     "This delicate 'proposal' attracted little public attention. Only
      Berlin FDP General Secretary Sebastian Czaja spoke up and warned of
      an 'open preparation for breach of the constitution.' Internally,
      there should have been protests. The 'proposal' suddenly
      disappeared from the table. Is it completely gone or will it
      return?"
   
   It remains unclear why no one has challenged the constitutionality of
   Hamburg's expropriation law.
   
   Meanwhile, some Germans are asking what is next: Will authorities now
   limit the maximum amount of living space per person, and force those
   with large apartments to share them with strangers?
   
      Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone
      Institute. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.
   
       * Follow Soeren Kern on Twitter and Facebook
   
   © 2017 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed
   here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of
   Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its
   contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior
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See also :
Merkel Madness: Not Enough Homes in Hamburg to House the Migrants so Guess Who Suffers?
by It Makes Sense Blog Saturday, May 20, 2017 3:25
http://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2017/05/merkel-madness-not-enough-homes-in-hamburg-to-house-the-migrants-so-guess-who-suffers-3282682.html

[sullivan]

This has been going on for several years now. The poorest of the poor among the indigenous Germans are those who are paying the price for Merkel's treachery.

[LoTechRevolt]

I'm sure the landlords will begin torching their own properties soon.