On May 22, 2024, the science city of Darmstadt announced that the index update of the rent index would result in an increase in rents of 12.25%. This underlines once again how important it is to create living space on Lincoln, the Ludwigshöhviertel or the Messplatz in order to counteract the high demand and rising rents.
The Darmstadt mayor's answers to this challenge are met with incomprehension by Alliance 90/The Greens. “The mayor repeatedly speaks of a healthy level of growth without providing a single concrete suggestion as to how a shortage of supply can counteract rising rents. “Responsible politics does not serve pleasant-sounding platitudes that only have the opposite effect, but rather provides answers and presents concepts,” said party spokesman Heiko Depner.
The statement that a solution can only be achieved with the Darmstadt-Dieburg district seems strange. The party is watching with concern the district's planned exit from Stradadi GmbH, which is actually intended to promote the expansion of the tram connection between the city and the district in order to make living in the district more attractive. The neighboring municipality is also not making progress with subsidized housing construction. With a rate of 6.3% of subsidized apartments in the existing stock, Darmstadt is the leader in Hesse, although the district can only boast 1.8% in this comparison. “The city of Darmstadt takes on a large part of the tasks for social services, both in social housing and public transport. We very much hope that the SPD and the city and district as well as the mayor of Darmstadt will finally commit to constructive cooperation that will distribute the burden fairly and not just lip service,” said state parliament member and party spokeswoman Hildegard Förster-Heldmann.
In order to give the political debate on growth more depth, the Darmstadt GREENS have launched an initiative to talk to experts across party lines. The GREENS sent a request to all democratic parties in mid-May, which is currently ongoing. In the further planning step, a meeting is planned at which the format is to be mutually agreed upon.
