Cold buses 2016

It's that time again, the cold season is here and the first “cold bus status posts” are already making the rounds on Facebook.

We've been reporting on it since 2012! There are various pictures circulating on Facebook with telephone numbers for refrigerated buses in various German cities.

This is either a screenshot of a mobile Facebook app with various phone numbers, or various self-made pictures with a number of cities and the corresponding phone number behind them.

First of all, we would like to mention that these calls for sharing were written with the best of intentions, but that they are simply counterproductive on Facebook!

Counterproductive because of that...

…Many of these numbers are simply wrong . Our research has shown that the emergency number often mentioned for Hamburg is simply the office number of an employee of Diakonie Hamburg who looks after the facility called the “ Midnight Bus ”. So no one can be reached there outside of office hours.

Quote from the employee: This was not agreed upon with us and we cannot afford it.

Absolutely not suitable for an emergency number!

And even the Diakonie's reporting number set up in Hamburg for abnormalities on the street is only open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Furthermore, this midnight bus runs a fixed route (which most homeless people also know), so it is not on call for emergencies.

For Berlin, for example, a completely different consideration can be made: How are two buses in a city of millions supposed to be able to supply all the homeless people when needed?

One or two numbers may actually be correct, Munich has even set up a free 0800 number , but finding this out required a certain amount of research.

And who wants to do that with every number? Then the phones at the relevant authorities start ringing all at once because every Facebook user asks whether the number is “real”? That can hardly be it...

Therefore, such calls for division – certainly written with the best of intentions – are simply COUNTERPRODUCTIVE!

In the event of an emergency, there is always and everywhere the well-known EMERGENCY CALL: 110 (police) or 112 (fire department/emergency service)! These should be chosen in case of doubt. The employees there know all the help offers and contact points in the respective city and are always on site within a very short time!

However, you shouldn't always just get help without asking if you see a homeless person on the street in freezing temperatures. If the person is unresponsive or unconscious, that is of course not a question. But in general:

1. Address person.
2. If person unresponsive or no response: call 112
3. If person accepts help: call 112
4. If person doesn't want help, please move on. Many homeless people do not want to sleep in emergency accommodation for very good reasons or refuse any help from strangers.