More than 55,000 people currently live in Berlin without a place to call home—sleeping in tents, on the streets, with friends, or in emergency shelters. But what do we actually know about their health and social circumstances? What gaps exist in Berlin’s support system—and how can research help improve the services available to them?

The second event in the series “WZB in Your Kiez,” taking place on May 28, 2026, will address these questions. The starting point is the academic examination of homelessness as one of the most visible forms of social inequality in Berlin’s urban space. The focus is on empirical insights from research in low-threshold Berlin health care facilities—and the question of what this implies for the design of care services.

The evening will feature a thematic lecture at a neighborhood Späti near Bahnhof Zoo by Daniel Schindel, Professor of Health-Related Social Work at the Catholic University of Applied Social Sciences Berlin (KHSB), as well as a guided tour of the neighborhood led by Querstadtein e.V. Together with the participants, we will discuss how homelessness shapes the lives and health of people in Berlin, where the existing support system reaches its limits, and what possibilities for better support are conceivable. We look forward to a lively exchange. This event will be conducted in German.

The “WZB in Your Kiez” event series consists of three events in May and June and is open to anyone interested. The goal of the series is to connect research on social inequality with everyday urban culture in Berlin and to make topics such as migration, gentrification, and social participation accessible in a low-threshold, local format.

Lara Bister and Emily Frank, research associates in the Health and Social Inequality research group at the WZB, received the “WZB Wirkt” transfer grant from the Friends of the WZB e.V. for this project.

Daniel Schindel is a professor of health-related social work at the Institute for Social Health at the Catholic University of Applied Social Sciences Berlin (KHSB). He studied sociology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and subsequently worked as a consultant for the Association of Substitute Health Insurance Funds in the field of outpatient care. Starting in 2015, he conducted research as a research assistant at the Institute for Medical Sociology and Rehabilitation Science at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2021. In his research, he collaborated with colleagues to examine the social and health situation of people without their own housing in Berlin, thereby laying an empirical foundation for health policy recommendations on the design of low-threshold care services in the city.