Director of Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities responds to criticism

The Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion in Roma Localities has been in operation since 2008. According to a recent analysis of municipal demand for its services, more municipalities are interested in its services than the Agency has capacity to collaborate with. Its activities are predominantly evaluated positively, but the city of Ostrava has criticized the Agency, which is now responding by reporting on the results of its work in a specific locality there.

Three years ago, the municipal authority of the Slezská Ostrava quarter of the city was considering selling buildings on Riegrova street that were in poor condition. The authority presumed a private owner would be better able to cope with the building’s tenants, who were in default. In the end, thanks to its collaboration with the Agency, the authority did not take the step of privatization, expecting it would be able to apply for funding to reconstruct the buildings and run social programs for the residents of this and other localities.

However, despite the Agency’s work with the authority in the locality, the political leadership reverted to its original strategy last year, selling some of the properties on Riegrova street. As Mayor Antonín Maštalíř told the Czech Radio news server: “We basically already know how to provide ourselves with the methodological aid offered by local partnerships and the Agency for Social Inclusion.”

The Director of the Agency for Social Inclusion, Martin Šimáček, has responded to the authority’s criticism by explaining how the Agency proceeded in Slezská Ostrava and provided aid in its socially excluded localities: “For more than two years, the Agency has not facilitated direct financial support to the towns and villages where it works, but has provided, among other services, advice on how to draw up project proposals. With the support of the Agency, millions of crowns of financing, primarily from the EU Structural Funds, were successfully sent to Slezská Ostrava, specifically, for example, to develop social services and the creation of a counseling center and drop-in facility in the Kunčičky locality.”

“Other projects, designed by CARITAS or the Life Together civic association (Vzájemné soužití) ensure social services such as field work, the operation of drop-in facilities in the Hrušov and Liščina localities, and social activation services. The methodological aid the mayor speaks of ensured, for example, that all of the stakeholders participating in work with the socially excluded regularly met at the same table for the first time ever. Thanks to the activities of this platform, common agreements were reached, for example, on extensive revitalization of the Kunčičky and Liščina localities,” Šimáček said.

“At the same time, I have repeatedly warned of the risks of continuing with the sale of the buildings on Riegrova street to a private owner. We are proposing that Slezská Ostrava create a model system for transparent housing arrangements together with the Agency that would cover the territory of the entire district, and that the apartments in Riegrov street be included in that system. A great deal of work has been done in Riegrova street in recent years. In 2008, a plan for revitalizing the street was designed. Thanks to a successful project request, an office was set up there out of which municipal social workers operate. After the decision was taken to sell the buildings, last fall we offered the local authority examples of the approach taken in a similar case in Roudnice nad Labem, where town representatives established detailed conditions for collaboration with the new owners. This spring the Agency held a seminar in Slezská Ostrava on transparent housing and then a seminar for entrepreneurs on the options for social businesses, which could ensure people living in Riegrova street have the option of legal employment, but neither the political leadership nor the new owner of the buildings has taken advantage of these offerings yet,” Šimáček concludes.