The Standard's editor-in-chief Alexandra Föderl-Schmid and the director of Caritas Vienna Michael Landau in conversation with Sara Mansour Fallah from the Pupils' Standard about juvenile homelessness.
According to Caritas' social relief institutions, the number of homeless youths has drastically increased. Economic crisis or political malpractice are supposed to be the reason – where do you see the cause for this increase?
Michael Landau: The facts make it clear that especially young people are frighteningly often threatened by homelessness. A third of the clients of our first contact point P7, the Viennese service for homeless people is now less than thirty years old. Also at JUCA, the Caritas house for young adults, people have become considerably younger over the last years: In 2000 the mean age at JUCA was 27, today it is around 23. The economic crisis has emphasised a problem which already existed before.
Alexandra Föderl-Schmidt: If the economic crisis has shown a thing then it is that unemployment, and especially youth unemployment, has increased. One of the possible effects is that youths become homeless, which is a severe social problem that has to be addressed by politics. At the moment everyone's concerned with desperate measures to get our economy running again. But it is time already to think about the consequences of this economic crisis in the social area. I do not see a lot of action regarding that in politics yet.
Let's go to the proposals for solution now. For instance, the chairman of JVP Sebastian Kurz has proposed youth pensions without lots of bureaucracy, and compulsory additional education after school in order to "get youth off the streets". Is that realistic or would it have little effect in the final run?
Michael Landau: One has to have a look at several things for that. One thing we see is that poorness is hereditary. Children from households threatened by poverty or acutely poor cannot get out of this situation, and very often also become poor parents. So the first important point is: How can we make the social state resistant to poverty? The theme of fighting against and avoiding poverty has to receive more attention not only in Austria but in Europe, too. Another point especially for young people is the approach to working. I have the impression that meanwhile this problem has been realised by politics. But at the moment I am still not convinced that sufficient measures are being taken.
Alexandra Föderl-Schmidt: I don't share your optimism. There is no political debate about youth homelessness. Moreover, I locate a massive imbalance in public recognition by the media, too. If pensioners demand something, e.g., higher pensions, it immediately becomes a political theme. There are strong lobbies which are able to move something. On the side of youth there are no lobbies, and especially not for this group.
Michael Landau: I'm with you there – we notice that especially socially disadvantaged people have no lobby. It is part of the trouble and the problem that large sums are speedily provided as a matter of course when it is about economic enterprises and when there also are strong players in public discussion. For social fringe groups it is much harder to get similar attention.
The rising number of homeless young people makes it clear that some things went wrong with prevention in Austria. What about further help? Should there be more contact points or is there a lack of other things?
Michael Landau: One of the decisive things is not to let the young people alone in their times of need. This first means that more specific offers are important. Today there are many more day centres and specific institutions than there were in the past, e.g., in the area of female labour. On the other hand, JUCA still is the only specialised house in Vienna.
Alexandra Föderl-Schmidt: Compared with the cities in which I lived Vienna is very expensive especially with regard to housing. This makes it even harder for young people who fall out of life because they quit their education or have problems with their parents. I think that much more should be done there. I also miss an education offensive. The compulsory kindergarden year already is a first step, but there are generations in between who also need help. Too little is done there in Austria. I think that compulsory education is good and important, but I also think that one has to tackle the basics like language and reading difficulties. Otherwise, these young people won't have a lot of chances on thelabour market.
Mr Landau, in a Caritas report from 2006 you said that to fight poverty it needs "ambitious aims, e.g., halving acute poverty in the coming five years". Three years have passed now – has Austria been getting nearer to this halving?
Michael Landau: I fear that we didn't get any nearer to this aim, and I also have the impression that there is frighteningly little readiness to discuss clear targets in this area. There were very clear and binding targets in economic questions if you think of the Maastricht criteria. I think that such measures are also needed for the social sector. I am convinced that there are good social reasons to give room to economic thinking, but there are also good economic reasons to give attention to social questions and to promote togetherness. The question is:Will the government be able to instill this discussion with positive dynamics?
This conversation lacks the third instance, politics. How does it look in the months to come – do you think that there is a realistic chance for this theme to become one of politics, too?
Michael Landau: This may succeed when there are good and strong partner who help us to make it a theme. We are glad to have good and strong media partners like the Standard.
Alexandra Föderl-Schmidt: The coming months as a whole are decisive for which path society will take now, a year after the economic crisis. All the questions are on the table, answers are still missing. And as for the concrete We: We from the Standard have made a beginning with our "Auf&Ab" (Up&Down) issue, and it is an incentive for us to stay with the topic.
Michael Landau was born in 1960 in Vienna. After graduating he took up biochemical studies from which he graduated with a doctor's degree in 1988. In 1986 Landau also began to study catholic theology – first in Vienna and later in Rome. In 1988 he entered the Viennese seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood on October 10, 1992. After that he worked as a minister in Vienna and Rome besides his studies. In December 1995 Landau became the director of Caritas Vienna, following Helmut Schüller.
Alexandra Föderl-Schmid was born in 1971 in Haslach (Upper Austria). Her first article in the Standard appeared on June 6, 1990 when she was a domestic politics correspondent in Linz. At the same time she studied journalism, political sciences and history in Salzburg. In 1993 she moved to Berlin as a correspondent for the Standard, where she stayed until 2004. On June 1, 2006 she moved to Vienna and became head of the economic department. Since July 1, 2007 she has been editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper "Der Standard".
The interview was published in the "YoungCaritas" magazine "Auf&AB" (Up&Down) (09/09) in co-operation with the SchülerStandard (Pupils' Standard).
