At the end of 2014, parts of the installation were used as an emergency shelter for refugees as a reaction to the refugee crisis. From summer 2015 on, the shelter was extended to the "Bedarfsorientierte Erstaufnahmeeinrichtung Heidelberg" in order to house and process asylum seekers according to the regular procedure with a capacity of ca. 4.000 persons (as of October 2015). The Minister of Science of Baden-Württemberg Theresia Bauer demanded the restoration of more buildings in PHV so that more refugees can be housed there, but Heidelberg's Deputy Mayor Eckart Würzner objected her request and insisted on a decentralized accommodation within Heidelberg as well as on a fairer distribution of refugees in Baden-Württemberg. The federal government of Baden-Württemberg decided regardless that Patrick-Henry-Village should become the central processing hub for three-fourths of all refugees of the southwest. It was planned that refugees should pass 40 procedures there, which combine the identification, health check, registration and application for asylum. Furthermore, asylum applicants who were sent to the rural districts get cited to appear at Patrick Henry Village again for their asylum hearing to take place.