Czech region pushing Romani people into itinerancy

Human rights activists based in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic are warning of a new phenomenon there: Romani families living in the region are starting to live itinerantly, and not of their own free will. Once a particular town hall decides to evict such a family from municipal housing, they must move to another town. Tensions are rising between longtime residents and the new renters, and there is no social housing available. Romani people most often end up in the overpriced residential hotels that are in business in order to draw on the state-subsidized housing benefits available to such tenants.

Last summer, an excavator started demolishing what once were exemplary buildings dating from the First Republic in the Vagonka neigborhood of the town of Karviná. The buildings were in a desolate state and the town chose the radical solution of razing them to the ground. The numerous, predominantly Romani families who lived there were unhappy with the decision. The town provided substitute accommodations to those who had paid their rent on time and were not in debt, but some families ended up in the residential hotels. The neighboring town of Bohumín has also evicted residents from socially troubled localities.

The municipality of Moravská Ostrava has determined that many of the people currently living on Přednádraží street moved there from elsewhere only recently. Vice-Mayor Dalibor Mouka has confirmed that: “It has been determined that many came from Slovakia to live with their families. Many of the people here were originally located in Bohumín, in the Karviná area, and in surrounding towns.“

Lýdia Poláčková, a member of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs, warns that moving people from place to place will not resolve the problem: “I think the problem is not being solved, it’s just being moved around.” Speaking with bitterness in her voice, she said Romani people are living itinerantly once again and ending up in residential hotels run by private firms who make money off of the tenants’ housing benefits.

There is almost no social housing available in the entire Moravian-Silesian Region. “Individual real estate owners who take the opportunity to get rich this way are naturally making money on the ‘social enterprises’ that are these residential hotels. The problems run much deeper and are caused by the state’s approach, which is not based on any kind of concept. The state has basically not yet defined what social housing is,” Ostrava-based sociologist Libor Hruška confirmed to Czech Radio.