Visible increase of Homeless people in Berlin. How to help?

the 600k number is national and includes people in shelters, not just on the street. still awful obviously

for direct help in Berlin, Berliner Stadtmission runs the Kältebus that drives around at night handing out blankets and hot drinks, you can donate to them specifically. also if you see someone in the U-Bahn who looks like they need medical help, you can call the Bahnhofsmission at the main stations, they have a mobile team

honestly the simplest thing is just to ask someone if they need a coffee or a warm drink when you grab one for yourself. I've done that a few times and people are usually just grateful for the human interaction, not even the drink itself

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You can also volunteer with Kältehilfe directly, they run the night shelters and always need people to help with serving food or just being present. The one at St. Hedwigs-Krankenhaus in Mitte is usually looking for volunteers on weekday evenings. If you're short on time, the Berliner Tafel takes food donations at collection points across the city, and a five-euro donation there goes further than buying a sandwich yourself since they buy in bulk.

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another good one is strassenfeger, they sell a street newspaper and the vendors keep 80% of the price. you'll see them at ubahn stations with the red vests, just buy a copy for 2.50 euro and chat for a second. also if you have clothes to donate, don't just leave them in a bag on the street - they get soaked or stolen. bring them to a kleiderkammer like the one at bethanien in kreuzberg, they sort and distribute properly

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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