One step forward, three steps back
Austria reverted on its decision to charge Ukrainians full price for public transportation -- but only until November 1. The long-term, structural financial problems remain.
Yesterday was a whirlwind of a day. It started with ÖBB, Austria’s state-owned railway, announcing trains would be free for Ukrainians for one more month, until November 1. A few hours later, Wiener Linien, the operator of all public transport in Vienna, follows. A few hours after that, VOR, the bus line in Lower Austria, made a similar announcement. This was all after they collectively spent the end of September warning that Ukrainians would have to pay like everyone else as of October 1. October 1 arrived, and it became increasingly apparent Austria had a major crisis on their hands: Ukrainians trying to live on miserly amounts of cash paid out monthly (if at all) made it clear they could eat or ride the bus but not both. The head of the federal agency for refugees spoke up. The Ukrainian ambassador spoke up. Train of Hope spoke up. I spoke up. Together, there was a lot of noise.
On October 3, I met entirely by accident, simply because I was passing through the train station on my way from one errand to another, a group of 12 refugees who just arrived via Hungary from Ukraine and there was no one to help them on site. No more Caritas. No more free tickets. No more tea or water bottles or apples or diapers. Nothing. The dozen Ukrainians had only the address of Train of Hope’s arrival center in one cracked mobile phone screen and no idea how to get there.
On October 4, the Austrian authorities (most but not all) reversed the decision on public transport tickets. However, they only extended free travel for one more month. This is a pause button, but not a solution. Now those Ukrainians who already reached into their pockets to buy monthly passes are trying to get refunds. In short — it is a lot of chaos and stress and panic which could have bene avoided if the decision-makers actually understood the financial situation of many, vulnerable refugees living in Austria. Clearly, they did not. Maybe now they have a better idea. One can hope.
I wrote this yesterday. You can read the whole story here.
This. This is what is happening. But remember, not everyone can go back, if their homes were destroyed in Mariupol or are now occupied by the Russians, and not everyone can work. The pensioners, the sick, those with disabilities — they cannot easily find odd jobs to supplement their “income” on Grundversorgung.
So my only advice to the policy makers (not that they ask for it) would be not to argue about the price of tickets, but rather to do away with the terrible, broken Grundversorgung system which keeps Ukrainians pinching pennies and prevents them from working (the legal limit is €110 per month — a joke), and offer Ukrainian refugees a fair social subsidy and unrestricted access to the labor market, so that those who can work will work as soon as possible, legally, and those who cannot will not have to choose between a bus ticket and giving their kids breakfast before school. I don’t even mention winter jackets or shoes. No one is thinking about this stuff. Ukrainians are expected to miraculously jump through every bureaucratic hurdle official Austria throws at them and still say Vielen Dank at the end of the day.
And this being Austria, the decision reversal wasn’t universal. I am receiving messages from Tirol and Steiermark saying their bus tickets still cost money; Ukrainians have to pay just like Austrians. Except Steiermark is the worst — only gives them €150 per month instead of €260 mandated by the federal government. Just because. And throws in a bag of groceries or toilet paper or what not to compensate. There are no consequences which I can see for states who choose to just do their own thing. Some of the housing offered in Lower Austria is a total and complete disgrace. That is a huge disadvantage of Austria’s federal system. States often act like independent entities and there is little or no overnight.
An appalling article came out in Tirol yesterday about the conditions at a former hotel housing refugees in Innsbruck. We have known about this for months, but it was never of interest to anyone other than a few tireless volunteers. Glad stories like this are finally making it into the newspapers. The headline reads “Children are often going hungry.”
This week I have also received desperate calls from the dorm in Vienna’s 11th district where over 200 Ukrainians have been stranded for months without Meldezettel thereby keeping them from all the other benefits and processes which exist for refugees. They have a roof over their head and “food” at mealtimes but that is it. It has been so so frustrating for me to go on about this for months and there to be zero official progress. Stadt Wien doesn’t even acknowledge it is its mess to clean up.
But finally, I have a glimmer of hope. An English-speaking Ukrainian resident called me and organized his neighbours. They are willing to talk. I put them in touch with some journalists. The Ukrainian embassy reached out to me and asked for contact details. They sent a representative immediately yesterday to meet with the residents. I cannot tell you how happy I was to hear this! I also received an extremely polite note of thanks on behalf of the embassy for everything I have been doing over the past several months to help Ukrainians in Austria. At 2am. Over Telegram. In perfect, gorgeous English.
I have had some great conversations recently with really smart folks who have wonderful ideas about what more we can do, yet I find myself struggling because there are only 24 hours in the day and most days it still feels like I am working at 99% capacity. My iPhone is about to die because I am on it non-stop. I have to go get a new battery. Feels like a metaphor.
Delivering grocery cards remains my number one priority because I know how important putting what is essentially €50 cash into refugees hands is, especially for those who just arrived, and they are still contacting me. The Telegram grapevine works brilliantly. A few people find out about me in a dorm or motel or group housing, particularly in rural locations, and then I get a stream of texts from the same address. This is so important because in many of these villages there are exactly zero resources for refugees — no charities, no free lunch, no humanitarian aid. They are totally on their own and at the mercy of their landlords, who come in all shades from decent caring people to truly awful. So every envelope I hand over (three delivered in person yesterday at Westbahnhof, for example) is a sense of relief. Every envelope I drop in a yellow postbox to a village miles away from Wien feels like a small success. But for every card I deliver, I get another request. Which is normal. Which tells us that our help is still needed.
The photos keep rolling in. No two are alike.
I cannot predict what the winter will bring. Rampant inflation is biting everyone in Austria at the moment. We all feel it immensely. Ukraine appears to be making real territorial gains in the south, Russia’s army appears to be running backwards, and yet Putin’s birthday is in two days, he will be 70, what kind of a birthday present will Kadyrov and Prigozhin and the other crazies have in store for him? I shudder to speculate.
Folks inside Russia are talking so casually about the chances of Russia using a “tactical nuke”. I cannot even begin to think about it. It is like a mental block. But I know once we start talking about something all the time, we normalise it. And the really, really worries me. I wouldn’t want the Russian decision-makers (assuming there are others other than Putin calling the shots, which I doubt) to have any excuse to do something horrific simply because the world already expects the worse. They, and HE, need to live in fear. They need to believe in retaliation and what that would mean for Russia. I’m no expert on security studies, but these seems like common sense. You have to stand up to a bully or he goes on tormenting his victims forever.
So I am going to continue blocking out all these horrible thoughts, and focus my time on getting out direct aid to the people who need it the most. The Klimabonus coupons are great because they come in €50 increments, and are accepted in major supermarkets (actually all except Hofer!). The Hofer cards are still great too because the prices are fair and there are a lot of non-food items, too. And the Austrian post is just fabulous. I have very, very few returned envelopes. So please, if you can still help, even a little bit, please donate here via credit card or bank transfer or here for PayPal. You can also send us cards or vouchers by post or meet me in Vienna to hand them over.
I can assure you the help goes out as soon as it comes in. I am constantly writing down new addresses and taking screenshots for later and updating my lists and my little pile of envelopes. Mario and his amazing team are placing bulk orders of Hofer cards and sending those out to families who have been waiting months. A very generous reader has kept me full of Ukraine-flag stamps and now even sent 150 transport tickets for Wien which I will keep for November. I am sure we are going to need them, unfortunately.
Yesterday I met a mom who arrived only September 21 from Chernihiv. There is no work in her city, she says. She decided to come here with her nine year old son. She is a single mom. Her mother died. Years ago, she worked in a Volkswagen factory in Slovakia, leaving her son back in Ukraine with granny. She loved the job. I asked why she didn’t go there now, why Austria? VW said if she came with a kid they would charge rent to him like an adult. So the mathematics didn’t make any sense. Instead, she came to Vienna, where her best friend is with a baby and her parents (I know the best friend, met her months ago at the train station — she gave birth in a bomb shelter in Chernihiv in the early days of the war). She will try to get into the same dorm, will try to find a school for her son, will try to figure out work and music lessons and…I listened, and handed her €50 for food. That is what we do. We don’t fix anything major. We just make life a little easier, if just for a week, and we show that someone out there cares. That you are not alone. And yes, it is sometimes really hard. Last night I had to say to my Ukrainian group — I am not Google. Do not ask me questions you can look up yourselves. I am one and you are thousands. We are all short of sleep and nerves. It is what it is.
Thank you for reading and for your continued support.