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Hundreds of emergency overnight stays are available in Berlin at the beginning of the colder season.In cooperation with the Senate Department, the Cold Aid coordination office found around 720 places, said Ursula Schoen, director of the Diakonisches Werk Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Oberlausitz.In November it should be at least 949 places. As a rule, the Cold Hilb season in Berlin begins on October 1st and runs until April 30 of the following year, with further places available in particularly cold winter months.According to the league of the top associations of free welfare care, an average of 1,071 places were available last season 2024/2025. In addition to the emergency overnight stays, the DRK heat bus starts from November 1st, according to the Berlin Red Cross.This should be traveling daily from 6 p.m. to midnight by the end of March. Focus on prevention At the start of the colder season, the Berlin Welfare Associations are calling for the focus on the prevention of homelessness."Prevention means preventing the loss of living space in the housing emergency aid," said the managing director of the State Association of Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO), Oliver Bürgel.This works through a coordinated cooperation between landlords, job centers and social welfare offices, courts and the departments of social housing. For this, it is important that, for example, the limits of responsibilities are broken up a bit."Unfortunately, this is not always the case and far too often prevention is not successful," said Bürgel, who also held the leadership of the league of the umbrella organizations of free welfare care.Then it shows why the system of housing emergency aid and the cold aid are needed. According to the Senate Department for Social Affairs, 53,610 housed homeless people in dormitories, emergency overnight stays, sponsoring apartments and other offers of housing emergency aid lived in Berlin as of January 31, 2025.Around 6,000 people live completely without accommodation.