Lighthouse Wien

Last updated
Lighthouse Wien
Founded2000 (2000)
Typenon-profit homeless shelter
Focus Homelessness, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, psychiatry
Location
  • Vienna, Austria
Services Homeless shelter
Key people
Margit Fleck, Chairwoman
Andreas Hofmann, Chairman
Christian Michelides, Director
Website www.lighthouse.wien

Lighthouse Wien is a non-profit homeless shelter in Vienna, Austria, founded in 2000. It is a housing project for homeless persons with substance dependency, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and/or psychiatric disorders.

Contents

Foundation

The project is based on an idea of Bernhard Durst in the 1990s, [1] supported by television host Günter Tolar  [ de ], Vienna's AIDS pastor Clemens Kriz OSsT and a committee of prominent representatives of Austria's civil society. After Lighthouse projects were already realised in Hamburg, Basel and Zürich, Vienna should also get a housing project for people with HIV and AIDS. As he died from AIDS in March 1995, Durst could not witness the realization of his dream. [2]

The foundation of the first apartment for four inhabitants succeeded in March 2000 in Vienna’s Löwengasse, then named Dach überm Kopf. It was carried out by Friederike Baca, Christian Michelides, Herbert Rausch and the self-help organization Menschen und Aids, and it was supported by Burgl Helbich-Poschacher  [ de ] from the Order of the Maltese. [3]

Lighthouse apartment Lighthouse Wien 2.jpg
Lighthouse apartment

The main building of the project in Dampfschiffstrasse 8, [4] a five story residential building in the centre of Vienna, was rented in May 2001 and was for the first three years run in cooperation with Ute Bock, who then gave shelter to asylum seekers. The building was then restored according to the needs of the inhabitants. The first apartment, as well as the main Lighthouse building and the additional apartments in the neighbourhood were consecrated by cardinal Christoph Schönborn. [3] A chapel of the Diocese of Vienna was installed in February 2006. [4] As of 2025, Lighthouse currently offers shelter and care to 62 persons. [3]

Association

Founded in 2003, the Lighthouse association is chaired by a voluntary board of three members. [5] The project is not subsidized. [3]

The director of the association since its foundation is psychotherapist Christian Michelides. [5] He heads a multiprofessional team consisting of drug counselors, life coaches and psychotherapists, a mediator, a general practitioner, a social worker and a nurse, as well as workers and cleaners, civilian servants and internships. [3]

Lighthouse took part in formulating the requests of the community on the occasion of the XVIII International AIDS Conference, 2010 in Vienna. [6] The organisation received the national qualification Österreichisches Spendengütesiegel on 8 July 2015. [7]

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Obituary Bernhard Durst Archived 2014-01-12 at the Wayback Machine , February 5th, 2011
  2. 1 2 "Lighthouse Wien". World Habitat Award . 2006. Archived from the original on 17 April 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Die Geschichte des Lighthouse". Lighthouse Wien (in German). 2025. Retrieved 8 November 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Wiener Diözesanblatt". Diocese of Vienna (in German). January 2006. p. 13. Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  5. 1 2 Zierlinger, Lara (27 June 2024). ""Am Montag bin ich tot": Zu Besuch im Drogenwohnprojekt". Profil (in German). Retrieved 6 November 2025.
  6. ↑ "AIDS 2010 – Forderungskatalog" (PDF) (in German). Community Forum Austria. July 2010. pp. 10–12. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
  7. ↑ "Lighthouse - Verein für Menschen in Not". Österreichisches Spendengütesiegel (OSGS) (in German). 2015. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
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