“A family with six children and a dog; an elderly couple with five cats, the wife is blind and needs dialysis once a week; three women and a nine-year-old girl – they will arrive the day after tomorrow.”

This is a typical post on the “Help Ukraine to find a shelter” blog that Krystyna Krupko founded. The 25-year-old comes from Ukraine herself. She has been studying life sciences at the University of Potsdam since 2019 and works in the administration of the Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy at Freie Universität Berlin. The war in her home country changed her life overnight.

“Many thousands of people are coming to Berlin and are looking for accommodation – including my relatives, friends, and acquaintances,” reports Krystyna. However, the official mediation platforms were no longer able to serve all the inquiries in a timely manner. So she decided to look for and arrange accommodation herself. “It was very stressful at first. I couldn’t even eat regularly because my phone kept ringing.”

When it started a few weeks ago, she didn’t have that many contacts, but now her network of private individuals and organizations even extends to other federal states.

Families Often Need Accommodation for Four or Five People

Krystyna has found that many people are temporarily able to make room for one or two people in their apartment or house. However, the refugee families often come in groups of four or five and sometimes have pets with them. “It was very difficult to find accommodation for the family with six children and a dog,” says Krystyna. A solution was finally found in Potsdam, where a chain of private contacts was able to accommodate the family. After two weeks, the group was able to move to social housing near Rostock.

Most placements are made through volunteers and groups of friends. “Many people take in refugees and look for other places to stay in their private environment.” Together with other volunteers, Krystyna managed to find accommodation for a family of ten in the Holthof holiday resort in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The Blog Opens Up New Networks of Hosts

Once the capacities of her personal networks were almost exhausted, Krystyna came up with the idea of founding her own blog on the blog platform of Freie Universität Berlin. Almost daily she publishes inquiries from newcomers who need accommodation for a short time or permanently. Anyone who can offer accommodation – even if only for a few days – leaves their contact details in a comment and will be called as soon as possible. The comments are only visible to the blog team.

“Unfortunately, the blog is not very well known yet,” says Krystyna. She has only received a few offers so far, but the demand is all the greater. In the first few days after starting the blog, she was able to give nine refugees a temporary roof over their heads. “The hosts often accompanied the Ukrainian families to visit the authorities and helped them with forms. That impressed me a lot.”

Refugees Can Know Where to Go before They Arrive

Martina Sick was one of those able to help. The chief administrative officer of the Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, she offered to take in a mother and her 25-year-old daughter. “Since our children moved out, we have two free rooms with a small private bathroom,” she reports.

Ms. Sick said she used to like living in shared apartments and now she sees the guests as an enrichment. She said, “We shared the fridge and made room in the kitchen” because the new roommates wanted to be as independent as possible and prepare their own meals. Friends of hers have also used the blog to offer accommodation.

Krystyna Krupko emphasizes that volunteers accompany the refugees to the accommodation and check the conditions on site. She stresses, “We want to make sure that the refugees are accommodated fairly and safely. We call both sides before and during the stay, and we also keep a list of all the accommodations.”

Ideally, the mediation offered through this blog offers an invaluable advantage. Krystyna points out that “thanks to our networks, we know a few days in advance who will arrive in Berlin and when. It’s a great relief for people to know where to go before they arrive. Most of the refugees leave home under uncertain circumstances. They are not prepared for such a journey into an uncertain future. That’s why we’re here for them.”

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This article was originally published in German on April 20, 2022, in campus.leben, the online magazine of Freie Universität Berlin.