Exorbitant residential hotel rents protested in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Eighty people living in municipally-owned residential hotels in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) have petitioned the town leadership over its exorbitant rents, but town councilors will not be reducing the rates. The protest was supported by the humanitarian organization People in Need (Člověk v tísni) and the Roma organization Khamoro.

“The rent is too expensive,” a resident of the Drahomír residential hotel complained to the Czech daily Právo. “Including the utilities, I pay more than CZK 10 000 a month for a studio apartment. I have only CZK 2 000 a month left over for food,” he said.

In recent years the town raised the rents on its residential hotels by about CZK 5 000 per month in two separate phases. The protesting tenants also warned of changes to their welfare benefits, which have been reduced.

“We know that socially vulnerable families in particular are having financial problems as a result of the state’s interventions in the social security system,” said Jiří Kotek (Alternativa), first Deputy Mayor of Karlovy Vary, “but we can’t reduce the rents in the residential hotels. They are not intended for permanent residency, but to meet the needs of town residents for short-term housing.” Kotek said some families have been living in the residential hotels for several years. “The costs of operating the residential hotels are high, so we cannot reduce the rents,” he said.

According to Emil Voráč, chair of the Karlovy Vary branch of the Chodov-based Khamoro Roma organization, roughly 30 families, most of them Roma, have been placed in a desperate financial situation from which they cannot escape because of the high rents. “Some of them have already had to move. They found cheaper housing in a residential hotel run by Vietnamese people in the yard of one of the train stations in town. The lowest rent in a municipally-run residential hotel is CZK 8 000, but there are families paying as much as CZK 14 000,” he said.

Voráč says the apartments usually offered for rent in Karlovy Vary by private owners for lower rates are also out of reach for these families. “The landlords all want advance deposits equivalent to several months’ rent,” he clarified.

“We have no money to set aside for those deposits,” a residential hotel dweller said. “We have nowhere to go.”

“Operation of the Drahomír residential hotel costs us as much as CZK 6.25 million annually, but we don’t take in that much rent,” says Jan Kopál, spokesperson for the Karlovy Vary town hall. Operation of the residential hotel in Úvalská street is said to cost CZK 2.5 million, which for now is fully covered by the rents collected.

“We are satisfied with the result of our negotiations with the town leadership, because at least we have the certainty that the rents will not be raised,” Voráč said. The town leadership also promised to be more accommodating of single mothers at the residential hotel in František Halas street.