Swiss cities open more emergency shelters as temperatures drop

Several cities have opened emergency shelters this winter. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

With the cold nights, the demand for places in emergency shelters is increasing. The cities of Geneva and Lausanne have opened additional emergency shelters to meet the demand.

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The city of Bern’s emergency shelters should be sufficient for the winter. This was stated by the city of Bern’s social services department in response to an enquiry from the Keystone-SDA news agency on Monday.

In November, the city opened a temporary emergency shelter with 20 places for the winter. This additional facility will close again in the spring.

In June, the city also set up an emergency shelter with 18 places for women, intersex, non-binary, and trans people, or agender people. “This has provided important relief for a particularly vulnerable group of homeless people,” the social services department added.

In the city of Geneva, 80 additional emergency accommodation places will be opened for three nights from Monday evening. With the opening of the PC shelter in Champel, 577 places will be available.

In Lausanne, the city administration had already announced that it would increase its emergency accommodation capacity from Saturday evening. The Rouvraie shelter offers 50 additional beds.

Adapted from German by AI/jdp

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