Day 4 - Apartment hunting - November 17th

Mohammad, "Mo", my translator friend who was on vacation in Vienna, borrowed his brother's car. He picked me up first and then the Rasoul parents, Shamse and Abdelaziz from the shelter in Schoenbrunn. It was still dark out, yet both, Shamse, the mother, and Abdelaziz, the father, were ready on time. 

We drove to the 16th district, to one of the Caritas offices that is able to assist with finding a suitable apartment for refugees. Refugees would need to register for an apartment and the size of the apartment would be determined by the amount of people living there. 
Upon arrival, we were told that the rules had changed. A family could only register for an apartment once the every member was granted asylum. We asked if it would be possible for Shamse, the mother, who was already granted asylum, to register for a one bedroom or studio so that the family could live there until all of them had the documents that were required but that was not an option. We spent some more time there, even spoke to the person in charge, but no doors opened up for us. 

We left and Mo was kind enough to drop me off at work. I would usually schedule all appointments with government officials as early as possible, considering waiting times and my commute to work. Everything needed to be done by 09 am latest -  always.  

Mo dropped the Rasoul's off at the shelter. We would meet again at 2:30 pm at another Caritas office in the 9th district. I had been trying to reach that office by phone for days as I had several questions that no one was able to answer but them and I prefer in general to make sure I am at the right place before appearing unannounced in person. I didn't understand back then why I was unable to reach anyone. The phone kept ringing but no one ever picked up. Not once.

I went to work. During my time at work, I would use every free minute to keep looking for apartments, send more emails, gather more information, learn about the asylum process and more.... I found so many apartments that would have been a perfect fit for the Rasoul's budget, yet whenever I reached a real estate agent, I kept hearing "No" - "No refugees" - "No Syrian". I spoke softly with the real estate agents, urged them to do the right thing, explained the situation and that there were thousands on the streets finding themselves in the very same tricky situation as the Rasoul's - most of them were waiting. Waiting for the right documents to arrive. With the large amount of refugees that had arrived and the ones that were still arriving, it was extremely difficult for government officials as well as NGO´s to keep up with paper work, work permits, apartments, insurance, school etc. And that was the reason why at the Caritas office in the 9th district no one was even able to pick up the phone. 
I asked every real estate agent I spoke to, to help and to at least try to make a change, yet every real estate agent told me that the owners of the apartments didn't want refugees and that there was nothing they could do. I couldn't believe them. How could I believe that there was NOTHING a person could do? It was mind numbing. It was unacceptable.

I left work a little earlier in order to be on time for the appointment at the Caritas office in the 9th district.  We entered a medium sized waiting area that was packed. I went straight for the ticket machine to get a number. But the ticket machine had no numbers to give away. Ever. 
We waited around for someone to come out of one of the offices. And when finally someone did, we approached the gentleman and asked him what the process was like. We were told that we needed an appointment in order to speak to someone. In order to get an appointment, we needed a number. And in order to get a number, we needed to come very early in the morning. Wednesdays were closed. Thursday morning was the next possibility to get a number.

Shamse, Abdelaziz, Mo and I scheduled to meet two days later in front of the very same Caritas office at 07 am. I decided to invite the family and Mo over to my place for a relaxing dinner on Wednesday as we were all getting tired - not so much from running around, but probably from worrying about the uncertainty of the near future...

I went back home. I didn't feel at ease. Thursday was the day before the Rasoul's had to vacate the shelter. I doubted they would get an apartment by the Caritas right away. I tried to keep my head up but when I went to bed I couldn't stop thinking that I had only 2 full days left to find them a new place to stay.