If you apply for asylum in Germany, federal law requires that you live in an “initial reception center” during the first three to six months. This is a shelter where you share a room with other refugees and receive three meals a day. There will be social workers, interpreters and other staff who are there to help you get oriented in your new surroundings. Because so many refugees arrived in Berlin in 2015, a lot of emergency shelters had to be set up to recieve the new arrivals. As the city of Berlin is completing new refugee accommodation, these emergency shelters are being closed down successively.
After three to six months at a reception center, you are free to move into an apartment. However, there is a shortage of affordable housing in Berlin; as a result, you may only be able to get a room in a collective accommodation for refugees. Collective accommodations are more comfortable than reception centers or emergency shelters, they offer more privacy and you can cook your own meals. If you live in a collective accommodation or a rented apartment, you recieve higher benefit payments because you buy your own food.