Tenant participation | State-owned housing companies in Berlin: tenant councils without power

Gesobau apartments in the Reinickendorf district. Tenants of state-owned housing companies can influence their landlord in tenant councils. Photo: imago/Schöning The work of the tenant councils is “a great service to democracy,” says Gesine Schwan. The renowned political scientist and Grande Dame of the SPD will speak to around 100 tenants of the Berlin state-owned housing company (LWU) on Wednesday evening. At the tenth conference of tenant councils and tenant advisory councils, there was no shortage of praise. “Thank you very much for your commitment,” says the still incumbent Senator for Construction Christian Gaebler (SPD) at the end of his welcoming speech. The board of the state-owned company Gesobau, Lars Holborn, also thanks them for their cooperation and voluntary work.

The event is organized by the state-owned public institution Safe Living (Siwo). All tenants who meet at the conference are members of tenant councils and tenant councils. The former has been around since the 80s, at least in West Berlin. They are elected in neighborhoods, are contact persons for tenants and specifically advocate for the interests of tenants in the six LWUs, which together hold around 400,000 apartments. The history of tenant councils, however, is much more recent. They were introduced in 2016, are elected company-wide every five years and represent the interests of tenants at company level. They are also represented on the supervisory board of the respective company by one voting member and one guest.

The speakers on the stage in the city mission's ballroom agree on how important these councils are. Sandra Obermeyer, director of Siwo, emphasizes that they are a “democratic gain”. It is not a given that large housing companies have tenant participation, she says. Housing Senator Christian Gaebler says the committees are not a “temporary project, but rather an integral part of our housing and urban development policy.” “We want you to move from having a say to helping to shape things,” he says, but immediately adds that this also has its limits.

Gesine Schwan becomes clearer about exactly what these limits to participation are. Under no circumstances should you confuse consulting with co-decision-making, she says. "But it's important that you still take this advice seriously." A little unrest arises in the room when Schwan reveals that she doesn't know exactly what tenant councils and tenant councils are. She mistakenly places tenant councils, the local tenant representatives, on the company website. “These are all elected tenants!” shouts someone from the audience. “It’s embarrassing,” murmurs one spectator.

After more than an hour of speeches, the conference is divided into four workshops known as dialogue forums in smaller rooms in which the participants exchange ideas on various topics under guidance. In the dialogue forum “Good Communication – Strengthen Trust,” two dozen tenants play a role reversal. The fictional situation: The elevator in a 13-story building is broken. Each participant is assigned a role, from the desperate tenant who can no longer get out of the house, to the tenant advisory board, to the tradesmen from the specialist company who are supposed to repair the elevator but have not received the necessary parts.

One participant skillfully plays the service center of the housing company. “You called outside of office hours,” she jokes, earning laughter. Contrary to what was intended in the script, which describes her as “patient,” she slips into the role of a dismissive and almost cynical employee. On the one hand, she brushes off tenants - "I recorded that", "Be glad I answered at all" - and on the other hand, she shows patience with the specialist company. The problem is not solved in the role play; responsibility is continually passed on. “The container, you know, the Strait of Hormuz,” says a tenant who plays the specialist company.

The obvious goal of the workshop was to create an understanding of the processes in the company and its employees. However, when evaluating the role play, the criticism that the tenants have of their landlords becomes clear. »I wasn't helped. I found that to be realistic," says a tenant who was also a tenant in the role play. Die fiktive Servicecenter-Mitarbeiterin sagt, es sei erstaunlich, wie viele Leute sie überhaupt erreicht hätten. That's not the case in real life. At some point another tenant gets fed up with the workshop. »Ich mache diese Scharade nicht mehr mit«, sagt er und geht. The further evaluation quickly turns to the work of the tenant councils. "It's no use to us if we do our work, but then nothing happens," says one.

“If we don’t do this anymore, what will the tenants have?”

“I thought the working group we had was great,” says Heike Kasten-Nkongolo in an interview with “nd” after the workshop. “I would like to see a role play like this with tenant committees and decision-makers from companies.” Kasten-Nkongolo has been a tenant councilor at LWU Stadt und Land for five years. The qualified economist has also been on the supervisory board since March. When asked, she says that her participation there is of course not very effective. After all, she only has one vote against six others. But she is still convinced that the work is important: this is the only way the supervisory board can continually hear the tenants' perspective.

She doesn't sound frustrated, even when she says that as a tenant council you can say whatever you want without anything happening. This also applies to apparently small changes. »As a tenant council, for example, we have a disagreement with the city and the state. We want the local service points to be reopened.” These were closed during the corona pandemic. Since then you have to make an appointment. The management, in turn, doesn't want that. The tenant council actually wanted to publish an article about this in the company's own tenant magazine, which is actually what it is entitled to by statute, says Kasten-Nkongolo. Das sei aber, seit der Mieterrat das vor vier Jahren eingebracht habe, nicht passiert.

“There are a lot of little things,” says Kasten-Nkongolo. You rarely have success. »But I'm sticking with it: If we don't do this anymore, what will the tenants have? Then they won't even have a pain in the ass to occasionally chew their ears off."

At the end of the event in the ballroom there is once again room for comments from the elected tenant representatives. A tenant asks what happens to the many good ideas that are developed every year. Another tenant suggests that representatives from the companies could also be present at the next conference. As it is now, there is no feedback. “It’s important to us that the companies sit across from us,” she says.

At the very end of the official part of the conference, Siwo director Sandra Obermeyer took the floor again. Again she thanks you for your volunteer work. “Here’s to ten years of tenant participation!” she concludes. Tenant councilor Heike Kasten-Nkongolo summarizes the evening more critically in an interview with "nd": "Sometimes I have the impression that they are making fun of us here so that we don't really network."

The fact that the LWU has tenant councils is the result of the rent referendum that was canceled in 2016. He actually wanted to establish a new social housing provision with the purchase and construction of new apartments by the LWU as well as the introduction of social housing benefit for tenants at risk of being displaced - and a democratization of the LWU. Actually, the companies run as stock corporations or GmbH should be converted into public law institutions (AöR), which should be oriented towards providing housing for the common good and not towards making a profit. But that never happened. Since the referendum gained considerable momentum, the then ruling red-black Senate felt compelled to negotiate with the initiative. The result was a compromise: the “Housing Supply Act”. Tenants' councils were created, as was an AöR, the "Living Space Supply Berlin". This supervisory body for the LWU developed guidelines for its business policy, monitored rental requirements, published annual reports on the LWU's activities and supported the tenant councils. In 2024, however, the housing provision was renamed by the black-red Senate and its powers were severely curtailed. The AöR is now called “Safe Housing – Participation, Advice, Examination” (Siwo). Since then, their mission has primarily been to support tenant councils and councils. It has no control function. The Berlin Tenants' Association (BMV), among others, criticizes this and demands that Siwo should be given these powers again.“It would be good for the LWU to open up to such transparency and to involve tenants more closely,” says Wibke Werner, managing director of the BMV, to “nd”. drk

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