Vsetin Romanies' houses in north Moravia habitable - charity says

All houses in the Jesenik vicinity to which Romany rent-defaulters were moved from Vsetin, north Moravia, last October are habitable, representatives of the Olomouc-based Archdiocese Charity said today.

"They are not of course any first class and luxury. On the other hand, I know hundreds of people who live in comparable or worse conditions. I can see no difference in this," Archdiocese Charity director Vaclav Keprt said.

The charity people visited Romany families in three municipalities to see the situation on the spot in reaction to the criticism of the method Vsetin used to deal with the Romany issue.

The Romanies were resettled when Jiri Cunek, current deputy PM and local development minister, senator and Christian Democrat (KDU-CSL) chairman, was mayor of Vsetin.

The Vsetin town hall headed by Cunek had other Romany rent-defaulters moved from a dilapidated house in the town centre to new container-like flats on the edge of Vsetin, and also to other municipalities in north Moravia.

Keprt told CTK today that street charity workers should establish a permanent contact with people in the three Jesenik vicinity municipalities and help them.

"They have to learn a lot of things, they must be able to write an application and to take care of themselves. They often get into a difficult situation for trivial reasons. They, for instance, do not know that in view of their difficult situation they can apply for the suspension or a different timetable of instalments," Keprt said.

He added that the situation also requires close cooperation with the municipalities.

Keprt said that only a family where the mother has been left alone with six children will need more aid. He added, however, that her situation is by no means connected with resettlement from Vsetin.

Some resettled families have problems repaying credits for the houses and penalties for unpaid rents in the dilapidated house in Vestin.

The Vsetin town hall recently threatened them that they will lose the houses in the Jeseniky vicinity unless they quickly start to repay their debts, and that they will end up in the street.