Czech Republic: How Ústí nad Labem treats the poorest of the poor

Ústí nad Labem: An inversion layer hangs over the streets. I remember one like it from the days when there was mining in this north Bohemian region, and when much more brown coal was burned there than is today. Now the hard-to-breathe gases are returning to the region, reportedly because local chemical factories are starting up again. The town is grey, with few colors, and even fewer smiles among the passers-by.

We are walking through Předlice, a quarter full of what were once bourgeois buildings and small homes. Some still show their previous beauty, some look run-down or completely devastated. As has been known for rather a long time, accommodation in many of these buildings is dangerous. This is the fault of the landlords to whom the town shortsightedly sold this real estate, and the fault of some residents of Ústí who have been taking these buildings apart bit for bit for their metal components.

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The Předlice system

"This building is probably owned by the bank now, because the owner disappeared and never paid the bank what he owed after putting the building up as collateral," says an occupant of one of the extremely dilapidated buildings about to collapse. He and his common-law wife are the last tenants there. They say the problem is that in the abandoned apartments, "various drug addicts and thieves gather, they take the iron girders and lintels from the floors and over the doors and sell them in the scrapyard."

Míra Brož of the Konexe association in Ústí adds:  "This picturesque quarter was privatized years ago by dubious entrepreneurs who focus on trafficking in poverty. If you are a Romani family with several children, no one other than a landlord in Předlice or the owner of an usurious residential hotel will accommodate you, with very few exceptions. Among their other ‘entrepreneurial’ activities, many of these traffickers in poverty produce and sell drugs. They also do loan sharking and pimping."

This "Předlice system" of a large ghetto, separated from the rest of town by the campus of a chemical factory, has suited almost everyone involved for many years, according to Brož:  "Many residents of Ústí were glad that no Romani people were living in their neighborhoods, that they were segregated into Předlice. The landlords who own the apartment stock in Předlice were very glad to get money from the state coffers through the housing benefit received by their impoverished tenants. The nonprofits found it easy to get grants for projects intended for the ‘poor inhabitants of the worst Czech ghetto’. The town leadership didn’t have to address social housing. The situation in Předlice accelerated and the living conditions of its residents have deteriorated further, month after month, year after year. No one took an interest in it then, and no one is now."

The "system" has now logically hung itself with its own rope. The unmaintained, never-repaired buildings got into such poor shape that they become life-threatening, and structural engineers started to monitor the buildings in Předlice.

Killer buildings

Until a fatal accident took place in the quarter on Wednesday, 19 September 2012, there were no ideas or urgency about how to somehow address the situation. Then a 25-year-old woman lost her life when the ceiling of one of the buildings caved in. Another woman (age 43) was also buried under the rubble, but firefighters rescued her alive.

Two men at the scene managed to flee before the ceiling collapsed; they are now suspected of the crime of reckless endangerment. They were most probably there, even though the building had been officially evacuated, to steal metal components for resale.

According to the Ústí town hall, the building had been dilapidated for quite some time, as the landlord had long ceased taking care of it. This was confirmed by the structural engineer, who inspected the building on 9 September and demanded its demolition. According to the town’s spokesperson, Karel Rouč, it is evident that the building did not collapse just because of longtime neglect, but also because of the intentional removal of its load-bearing elements.

We are standing in front of the building where the tragedy took place. Today, just like several other buildings, its entrance and ground-floor windows have been bricked up. Signs of remembrance are still visible in front of the former entrance – candles, flowers, and gifts.

Routine and lack of interest

The wave of "solicitude" launched by this "killer building" was actually just a wave of routine. There is a de facto lack of interest in the people who have been evacuated from these buildings, who are some of the very poorest in the Czech Republic. Some occupants have already left some buildings in Předlice, either on their own initiative or on orders "from above". Other buildings probably await evacuation as well. The structural engineer has labeled 29 of them defective – and many are worse than the only one to have been evacuated by the town to date, building no. 106 on Beneše Lounského street.

The tenants of building 106 were previously assisted by attorney Klára Samková with establishing a housing cooperative and proposing to the town that they would take care of the building themselves. "However, the town preferred to sell it to the loan sharks, who were only interested in money, and who have neglected to maintain and repair the building. The town itself, therefore, is responsible for the state of building 106 and the others," Míra Brož.told news server Romea.cz.

The move

The gadje (non-Romani people) are in charge here – local politicians, municipal bureaucrats, social workers, municipal police and people working for several NGOs. At various meetings and negotiations, they are the ones who have all decided what should happen to the Předlice residents without ever asking them for their feelings, ideas, or opinions, and without ever taking any interest in their concerns and problems.

That lack of interest has made it possible for a rapid deterioration to occur in the already poor standard of living of the evacuated families. The people from building 106 are now living in worse conditions than they were before, and are paying several thousands of crowns more per month for all of the related expenses than they were previously. Families with more members are paying something between CZK 5 000 and CZK 10 000 per month more.

The families were first evacuated into a primary school gym. One day a truck came for them and they were informed that they were moving. They only took what was most necessary; to this day all of their furniture is still in the now-closed ghetto building.

The families were then relocated into a residential hotel in Krásné Březno, where they are sleeping on the same camp-beds they used in the gym. They say they had to accept the residential hotel because they had no other choice.

"They set it up, the social workers came around to see us with municipal police officers. When we objected, they threatened to take our children into state care. They arranged the overpriced rental contracts, we had to sign them after the fact," one of the relocated people insists.

Open letters

It is not surprising that the evacuated families are concerned about their fate. With the assistance of Míra Brož, they have written two open letters to the general public and the town, but they still feel isolated with their concerns and worries.

"We are writing this letter in a terrible situation in which we have lost our homes. We are facing our situation alone, without aid. Those responsible are not interested. We were evacuated against our will from building no. 106 in Předlice, where we had lived for years. First they evacuated us into a primary school gym, where we stayed for nine long days. After that they deported us to the other end of town into a residential hotel charging usurious rents which is infamous for its poor hygienic situation, its strict, almost prison-like regime, and also for the fact that ‘drugs are running’ there. We consider this residential hotel, into which we have been deported against our will, to be a completely inappropriate environment for our children," one of the letters reads.

"They have banned us, both adults and children, from gathering in front of the residential hotel or near it. If we want to chat outside somewhere and not be shut up inside all day, we can’t be visible from the residential hotel," one of the relocated people explains when asked about the "almost prison-like regime". The ban reportedly is because the gadje living next door to the residential hotel do not want to have Romani people accommodated near them.

How the poor live

The mothers of the relocated families told news server Romea.cz they are afraid their children will become the victims of drug dealers because several such people reportedly live in the residential hotel or visit it. It is also very expensive.

"We are two adults and four children," says Ms Iveta, "and we are paying CZK 11 500 per month for a one-bedroom unit. Of that, about CZK 7 000 is covered by our housing benefit. From the few crowns I get a month, I have to pay the other CZK 4 300. In Předlice, we paid CZK 6 800 per month for a larger apartment and electricity altogether. Of that, around CZK 2 000 was paid by me and the rest was covered by the housing benefit."

The relocated families have incurred another cost compared to when they lived in Předlice, that of commuting to school. The parents have kept their children enrolled in the Předlice school, because according to all of their previous experience, no other school will enroll them. They also do not know what sort of prospects they might have at another school. Today they are living in Krásné Březno, but the three months they are supposed to stay there will be over soon. During the next few weeks they might be living elsewhere, and that could repeat itself again in the future.

"The children would have to constantly change schools, which definitely would not benefit them," one of the relocated mothers said.

The residential hotel is located at the opposite end of town from the Předlice quarter. The trip to school takes a long time; mothers or others accompanying the children spend about an hour and a half per day commuting. It is also very expensive.

"I travel back to Předlice every day with two children. A bus ticket for an adult costs CZK 18, for a child it costs CZK 10. I ride with them in the morning, then I return home. Then I go fetch them when instruction ends. That’s four bus trips a day for me and two for the children. Altogether, therefore, we are paying CZK 112 just for transport to school, which comes to CZK 2 240 per month. When we were living in Předlice, we understandably paid nothing for transportation," Ms Iveta recalls.

"I commute to school every day with five children," says her neighbor, who pays CZK 3 440 for the commute per month. "When I am out of money, which often happens to us all, I have to borrow some, or ride the bus illegally and risk a fine, which I naturally couldn’t pay either." The seven-member family is paying CZK 14 500 per month for a one-bedroom unit in the residential hotel.

"We need this money that we are now spending on housing and transportation. There are six of us, imagine how much food we eat, besides which we must have clothing, shoes, and school supplies and snacks for the children. I couldn’t buy myself winter boots because my boy needed something for school. We will be like poor mice at Christmas here. We are slowly running out of food. When we are ill, we can’t go to the doctor. We don’t have the money for the fee, not to mention medicines, which are terribly expensive, but no one is interested. The mistake is that they pushed us out of our building into this zoo, that’s how I feel here," Ms Iveta says.

Temporary residency

The residential hotel landlord did not know the town had moved poor people from the Předlice quarter into his establishment. The arrangements were made by the manager, whose job there will reportedly be ending – and with his departure, the residential hotel will close. No one knows what will happen next with the Předlice evacuees.

The municipality has changed the address of the evacuees’ permanent residences without either their awareness or their consent. They are now registered directly with the town hall, as homeless people usually are. This is causing them more problems with their welfare disbursal.

"No one wants to talk with us, no one is informing us of anything. In the beginning they told us they would resolve everything and find some accommodation for us, but since then no one has been to see us," Ms Iveta said.

According to Míra Brož, it is unknown where authorities intend to accommodate the other people who will have to be evacuated from Předlice for their own safety. That "inversion layer" doesn’t just exist in the streets here, but in people’s minds.

News server Romea.cz will continue to report on this case. We will be interested to hear the opinions of local politicians, bureaucrats, governmental and non-governmental organizations about it.