While the main town hall for Ostrava offered a total of four social apartments to needy people earlier this week as part of its newly-launched inclusion program, the Municipal Department of Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz is doing its best to push impoverished residents out of its center. At the start of January the municipality posted a warning at a residential hotel it runs on Božkova information those living there that they must move out by the end of May.
According to the information currently available, 25 families were living in the residential hotel at the start of the year. More than half have already moved out. It is unknown where most of them have gone, but some moved into the residential hotel on Cihelná street. As we previously reported, the rents in Ostrava’s residential hotels are overpriced, there are not enough bathrooms and toilets there for the number of people in them, and dysentery has therefore been spreading in them. Other aspects of the housing in these facilities are also not good.
"We don’t know where to go"
"There are still nine families at the residential hotel in Božkova street and some of them have children," Kumar Vishwanathan, the chair of the Life Together (Vzájemné soužití) association, which assists Romani people and others in Ostrava, told news server Romea.cz. There are also elderly couples residing there who did hard work all their lives in the local mines. "We don’t know where to go," is the lament of those remaining.
Jana Pondělíčková, the press spokesperson for the Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz municipality, sent news server Romea.cz a written statement regarding the situation in response to our questions. According to her, the facility is not a classic residential hotel for the general public, but ensures shelter only as long as is necessary (six months maximum) for former tenants of municipally-owned apartments, most of whom are indebted to the town. During their time in the residential hotel they are supposed to find some other type of housing of their own choosing and arrange to move there.
"We have decided to close the residential hotel for financial reasons (annual losses of roughly CZK 1 million) and in order to better the neighborhood. We will conclude new fixed-term leases with the tenants. Should they fall into arrears, we will simply not extend their leases and we will not be obligated by law to provide them with shelter," Pondělíčková writes.
The statement goes on to say that people at the residential hotel knew in advance they were supposed to find themselves new housing. This responsibility also "applies to families with children, but when it comes to the social and legal protection of children we do our best to be maximally helpful. We can help them look for available rooms at other residential hotels and naturally arrange for social work counseling for them," Pondělíčková writes.
Just like the communists
According to Vishwanathan, it is almost impossible for Romani families to find ordinary housing in Ostrava. This is confirmed by information which news server Romea.cz has been provided by many different independent sources in the town. One seven-member family is even considering moving into a homeless colony located inside a set of abandoned garages. The family would live in two of them (each about nine meters square) by installing heating and repairing their roofs. There is no electricity, toilet or water there. Locals collect water from a nearby stream.
Vishwanathan believes the Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz municipality is treating its citizens just like the communists did prior to November 1989: "What we are witnessing is an effort by those in power to remove impoverished people from the town center, from Přednádraží street, from two buildings on Palackého street, and from this residential hotel. This is humiliating for the people concerned and they are getting into even greater problems than they have endured so far. In this location they are living in close proximity to the authorities, doctors, and the school. Now there is the risk that some of them will end up on the street. This is all being done so that Romani people will disappear from the Přívoz quarter, where they are considered a nuisance because, among other reasons, a private college has opened here."
Councilor Semerák’s garbage can
This was confirmed last August by Ostrava town councilor Lukáš Semerák (of the "Ostravak Movement") when he emphasized to news server Novinky.cz why he wanted to purchase buildings on Přednádraží street: "My sole intention is for that whole locality to be uplifted and for adaptable citizens to return to live there. Přívoz is one of the oldest parts of Ostrava and has a great history. Unfortunately, after the big floods in 1997, when the Hrušov quarter was affected by the water, the Romani people from there ended up on Přednádraží street. I regret that the quarter has become a garbage can."
Semerák also bought one of the buildings on Palackého street in which impoverished Romani people were living, while a business colleague of his bought the building next to it. "We want to ensure a calm environment and help the management of the private Karel Engliš College, which is headquartered across the street from our buildings and will open its doors in September," Semerák said.
People are being gradually pushed out of the buildings on Palackého street. One family had an open-ended lease; Semerák was able to evict most of the building because most of the tenants had fixed-term leases which he simply did not extend, and they have ended up in the residential hotels. The family with the open-ended lease told news server Romea.cz that they only moved after receiving many anonymous phone calls threatening to kill their children.
"Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz municipality and these entrepreneurs are treating these impoverished people like bales of hay. The municipality is obligated to take care of its citizens who are in material distress. The destabilization of the families from Božkova street, Palackého street and Přednádraží street is enormous. Often these families cannot feed their children because of the high rents they are paying to the residential hotels into which they have been forced to move," Vishwanathan said.
Full translation of the statement made by the Moravská Ostrava a Přívoz municipality
"The facility concerned is not a classic residential hotel for the general public, but ensures shelter only as long as is necessary (six months maximum) for former tenants of apartments located in the municipality, most of whom are indebted. During their time in the residential hotel they are supposed to find some other type of housing of their own choosing and arrange to move there.
Shelter is reserved there only for persons whose leases in apartments owned by our Municipal Department have ended (primarily because they owe us back rent) and who therefore are entitled to shelter there either by law or through a court order. We offer such people shelter in the building on Božkova street, but minimal use is being made of it. Most of the people currently living in the building have been there much longer than six months. Since 2002 the Municipal Department has been party to a mandatory contract with the BYTASEN, s.r.o. firm, which performs the administration of the residential hotel (administration, maintenance and repair of the property including its interior fixtures, receipt of rents, performance of measures to negotiate corrections when the accommodation units are used without authorization).
We have decided to close the residential hotel for financial reasons (annual losses of roughly CZK 1 million) and in order to better the neighborhood. We will conclude new fixed-term leases with the tenants. Should they fall into arrears, we will simply not extend their leases and will not be obligated by law to provide them with shelter.
Last November we gave notice to BYTASEN that our contract with them would end on 31 May 2013. Currently 12 rooms there are occupied. None of the families there have children. According to our information, the fact that the building will be closed was communicated to the tenants at the start of January 2013.
Since these people are adults, they are responsible for themselves. They have been given a great deal of advance notice that they are supposed to find themselves new housing (the building on Božkova street offers shelter only for as long as is absolutely necessary). We are offering people social work counseling.
The same applies to families with children (in terms of responsibility), but when it comes to the social and legal protection of children we do our best to be maximally helpful. We can help them look for available rooms at other residential hotels and naturally arrange for social work counseling for them.”
