What it's like to be a working homeless person in Germany | DW Documentary

Sleeping on the streets despite having a job? That’s the life of Attila Kokas. He's a gardener - without a home.

Denny Wagner is a cook - and also unhoused. He sleeps in a hut without running water or electricity. Living on the streets is more stressful than having a job.

Thousands in Germany share their fate. Despite working, they can’t find a place to live. Can they get off the streets?

You can just put your stuff down there. It’s 5:30 in the morning in Berlin’s Neukölln district. We’re meeting Denny Wagner.

He’s taking the bus to work. Here, it’s warm and cozy. Denny has been unhoused for almost half a year.

He has no fixed abode. After separating from his partner, he came to Berlin, was robbed, and suddenly found himself on the streets with no money, and no documents. The past months, the trained cook has been working at a homeless shelter.

The guests here spend their days on the streets. Denny knows exactly what they need when they come here to sleep at night. So I make sure that, when they come in the evening, there’s something really hearty to fill them up.

If you’re on the streets all day, it drains you. He works as a gardener for a charity, but also collects garbage and empties trash cans on the complex. He fears being caught without a ticket, so he gets up in the middle of the night to head to work.

Train tickets are expensive. I have to be careful I don’t get checked because I don’t have a ticket. Early in the morning, nobody checks.

So I don’t have problems when I get here early. It’s not that bad, I’m already awake at three a. m because I need to go to the toilet.

So getting up at four a. m. isn’t really a big deal.

I spend a bit of time on my phone, and then I start. Attila was already employed as a gardener in Hungary. He came to Germany seven years ago, in hopes of finding a better life.

Don't we have any ladles? Where are the ladles? Have you tasted it?

Well? You don’t like Brussels sprouts? Me, neither.

Then leave it. I just tried the broth, too. Their workplaces are the center of Denny and Attila’s lives.

It’s a refuge from the streets. My life is here. I mostly only leave to sleep.

Sometimes I have some errands to run and by the time I'm back it's around four, four-thirty, and it’s starting to get dark. Then it's time to eat. He says homelessness is stressful.

You’re constantly looking for money and food. It’s simply not true that unhoused people sleep in until ten. I'd clear my place by six in the morning and only go back around nine or ten at night.

You limit your needs. She’s got good news. Oh, that might be the transition house.

Berlin City Mission, emergency shelter, this is Pauline. Hello. Hello Mr Kokas, I just wanted to say that you can move in now.

You can move in. There’s a free space. Attila has received a room in a hostel for unhoused people.

Toilets and the kitchen are shared. He’s visibly disappointed, because after all the years he's spent on the streets, he would like a home of his own. Yes, but the shower, toilet, all of that isn’t mine alone.

But at least it'll be warm. Apartments are barely affordable, especially in big cities like Berlin. That makes it particularly difficult for low-wage earners.

According to estimates, there are more than half-a-million people in Germany without a home, and of them, 50 thousand live on the streets or in shelters. The reasons are frequently unemployment, debt, addiction or family breakups. Barbara Breuer of the Berlin City Mission says a person’s health is also decisive.

So, those who are healthy, psychologically, and don’t have an addiction, they can do very well in getting themselves off the streets. Attila is a great example. He's been very persistent in his desire to find a job.

He uses a small gas burner to keep warm. This is how I heat my room, with a gas canister like this. One canister lasts around three to five hours, depending how high you set the heat.

Then it gets really warm and toasty in a four-square-meter tiny house. You can just about lie down on the bed in Bermuda shorts. That’s how warm it gets.

A little luxury? Yes, a little luxury. So, there’s a bed.

90 cm by two meters. There’s storage space, shelves and a cupboard. You’re still really almost living on the streets.

There's no electricity or facilities. I can only power my hut with a powerbank. He’s still down because he hasn’t found his own apartment.

He has to share a kitchen and bath with other residents and can only hope they’re clean. It's understandable, given how stressful living without a home can be, and how urgent needing a place to retreat can get. Nice to see you here.

I’d like to give you the keys and then you can put your stuff down. So, some rooms are a little smaller, or laid out differently. Ah, this is good, very good.

I can put my jacket in there. Exactly. He says he doesn’t need much more to be happy.

Just to find an affordable place of my own. That would be enough for me. After all, I earn good money.

So, I don't need to push my luck.