German woman threatened with eviction to make way for refugees

Posted: Sep 25, 2015

evicted from her home of 16 years to make way for refugees. Bettina Halbey, a 51-year-old nurse, has lived alone in her flat in the small western German town of Nieheim since her children grew up. On September 1, she received a letter from the local municipality, telling her the building was being turned into a refugee shelter and she had until next May to leave. When Ms Halbey vented her frustration on Facebook, asking why she was being evicted when properties were standing empty in the town, her comment was shared 200,000 times. In Germany, where 52 per cent of people rent their homes, it is unheard of to be asked to leave under such circumstances. “It was like a kick in the teeth,” said Halbey, who brought up her two children as a single mother in the flat. Mayor of Nieheim, Rainer Vida, said the building was needed to house refugees because the town’s existing three shelters were full. “A new residential unit for 30 refugees in Nieheim would cost €30,000 (£22,000). This solution will cost me nothing,” he told Welt. Doubts have been raised over whether the municipality’s move is legal. It has invoked a law under which a private landlord can evict a tenant if he wants to move into the property himself. “Normally, only a natural person can terminate for personal use A municipality cannot move into a flat as a legal entity, so the process is legally highly questionable,” Ulrich Ropertz, spokesman of the German Tenants' Federation, said. The state government of Hamburg is pushing legislation that would enable it to seize empty commercial properties and turn them into refugee shelters. Local politicians in Berlin have called for empty apartments to be requisitioned from private landlords. ;