Berlin has seen an increase in homelessness and many of those affected struggle to access support services due to unemployment, extreme poverty, multiple health issues, language barriers and a lack of knowledge about their rights.

One project, co-funded by the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), is helping to solve this issue, raising awareness about the legal rights of EU citizens, and offering services such as day-care centres, shelters and medical care. The name of the project, Frostschutzengel 2.0 (Guardian angel against freezing), speaks for itself.

Pawel benefitted from the project, receiving medical help. But the project goes beyond helping the participant’s physical needs: Pawel valued having someone to speak to, instead of being lonely.

‘Frostschutzengel has helped me many times,’ says Pawel. ‘Not only did I get the medical care I needed, but the personal exchange also gave me a lot.’

Pawel no longer had to brave the cold of homelessness nor the emotional cold of isolation that homelessness brings.

To connect those in need to the welfare system and protect people from the ‘social cold’, Frostschutzengel 2.0 provides health and social counselling in multiple languages for mobile homeless citizens from countries across the EU. It supports individuals’ long-term integration into the welfare system by teaching them about the support available to them. From 2019 to 2022, the project reached nearly 1350 mobile homeless citizens mainly from Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Romania, and in some cases, their children too.

‘I see how important the support we offer to mobile EU citizens is,’ reports Julia, a social worker on the project. ‘Being able to explain the complex structures of the support system in their native language makes a big difference and often creates an access point that would otherwise remain closed.’

Thanks to this initiative, an easy-to-use guide was produced in multiple languages on the social and legal rights of mobile homeless EU citizens living in Germany, including practical information on how to access social welfare organisations and services. The guide provides an access point to the social support system for these citizens, connecting them to the tools they need to improve their lives.

In recognition of its invaluable work, the project team was honoured to receive the Ending Homelessness Award in 2018 from the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless (FEANTSA). FEANTSA is the only non-governmental organisation focusing solely on ending homelessness.