Berlin: Children and adolescents in Germany are at an increased risk of homelessness due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was revealed on Sunday.
“Wherever there is strife in families, a lockdown can lead to the total rift. This often ends with being thrown out,” Markus Seidel, a spokesman for the Off Road Kids Foundation, which works to help young people living on the street, told dpa news agency.
In 2020, a record number of children and adolescents called the aid organisation for help.
“We received 2,474 calls for help from desperate children and young people who are acutely threatened by homelessness in Germany,” Seidel told dpa.
“That was twice as many as in the previous year.”
The fact that a smaller number of social workers are active in the streets compounds the situation.
Off Road Kids tries to find children and young people suffering from homelessness accommodation through the online platform sofahopper.de.
