Czech Govt Agency for Social Inclusion director says both housing and social workers necessary to social housing

A conference on social housing was held on Tuesday, 14 February in Prague's Lichtenstein Palace by the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in collaboration with the Salvation Army of the Czech Republic. Its aim was to present examples of practical experiences with developing and launching social housing systems in the Czech Republic.

The conference reflected on the experiences of social housing providers and their stakeholders in order to formulate answers to and recommendations about the current challenges in the area of social housing. Experts were able to share their experiences from the area of social work in social housing systems during the conference as well.

"For a successful social housing system it is necessary to have both apartments and qualified social workers available. Currently we have - thanks to EU funding - the opportunity to significantly move both of these areas forward. I am glad my colleagues from the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry and the Regional Development Ministry are looking, together with us, for the appropriate way to establish these programs. Thanks to this funding, experienced, responsible providers of social housing will be able to expand their activities and new socially excluded localities will not arise," said Radek Jiránek, director of the Agency.

The current state of preparations of the law on social housing was especially addressed during the conference. "The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry sent the law to the Government on 2 February 2017. An ad hoc working group of the Government's Legislative Council will convene this week to assess the law, and if they do not have any objections to the bill, the law will be sent to the cabinet for discussion," Jitka Modlitbová of the Czech Labor and Social Affairs Ministry said on 15 February.