Czech Gov't Agency for Social Inclusion finds Předlice residents have almost no chance of better housing

Předlice, the municipal department of Ústí nad Labem primarily known to the public because of its derelict buildings that threaten the lives of their tenants and its problems with owners  not repairing them has become the subject of a study published today by the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. The research investigated how local institutions are involved in addressing the situation there and makes recommendations to the municipal department, the town hall and other public administration units on how to proceed in similar cases.

The study also points out legislative deficiencies, such as the fact that the country still does not have a law on social housing. The report is available (in Czech only) at www.socialni-zaclenovani.cz/dokumenty/dokumenty-pro-lokalitu-usti-nad-labem/analyza-bytove-problematiky-v-predlicich-stepankova-h-lomozova-p-2013/download

The Agency commissioned the research in response to developments in Předlice last fall. Several families were evicted from a building there because of its poor technical state. 

Many institutions, organizations and volunteers then began to take an interest in the fates of those people. The event drew significant attention to the issue of impoverished people’s housing in the Czech Republic.

"The aim of this research was to determine the causes that lead to the long-term problems with the quality of housing experienced by residents of Předlice. We researched the steps taken by various institutions that contributed to the current dismal state of the buildings there, the steps taken to address the situation of the evicted families and those at risk of similar evictions, as well as what steps were missing," Czech Government Human Rights Commissioner Monika Šimůnková said.   

The research was presented today to local stakeholders in Ústí nad Labem and will also be made available to all other units of the state administration, including ministries, that are involved in the topic. "The study points out certain deficiencies in the activity of some state administrative bodies, for example, the fact that there is a lack of capacity to address these issues as well as a lack of interest in them. Specifically, it mentions, for example, the Regional Public Health Station, the Building Works Authority, and child welfare protection authorities. These bodies must become actively involved in addressing situations like the one that occurred in Předlice," Šimůnková said.

The study recommends, for example, that Building Works Authorities should initiate and see through administrative proceedings against property owners who do not take sufficient care of their buildings. The authorities should order the performance of maintenance or preventative work on buildings in a timely fashion, should decide when hazardous constructions should be condemned, and should thoroughly enforce such decisions. 

Public Health Stations should thoroughly supervise whether property owners and those operating accommodation facilities have ensured high-quality hygiene conditions in apartment buildings or residential hotels and should take the initiative in such matters. The research recommends that municipalities create sufficient capacity for the temporary accommodation of people who will be losing the roof over their heads as a result of a building being condemned.  

The analysis also points out the existing legislative deficiencies that complicate the resolution of such situations. This primarily concerns the still non-existent legal definition of social housing and the conditions under which municipalities should establish it.

The obligations of the Building Works Authority are also not formulated unequivocally, nor are those of municipalities when it comes to providing shelter to tenants should a building be condemned.  Shelter also does not have to be provided in various cases of people losing their homes due to collections proceedings.

There is also no law on the provision of free legal aid to impoverished tenants in such cases. "The study describes in detail the historical development of the situation in Předlice. It shows the catastrophic impact of the privatization of apartments and single-family homes that had originally been municipal property and how, once they were in private hands, speculation in both the properties and their tenants began," Martin Šimáček, director of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion said.

The extensive privatization undertaken during the 1990s also led to the town and its municipal departments having very few units left in their own housing stock to offer those in need. "The privatization, among other things, resulted in the forced evictions of some tenants into residential hotels as a result of their apartment buildings deteriorating," explained Šimáček. 

Moreover, the municipal departments’ rules for assigning apartments include a requirement that applicants have clean criminal records and be debt-free, which means many occupants of the buildings in Předlice are not able to apply for municipally-owned apartments. However, this year the town hall did begin work on designing a social housing system and is considering purchasing its own accommodation capacity for this purpose.

The study summarizes all of the recommendations in detail and also describes the situation in four deteriorating buildings in detail, as well as describing the events around the eviction of the occupants of a building on Beneše Lounského Street. It has been published on the website of the Czech Government Agency for Social Inclusion. 

An example of one building in Předlice:  Řeháčkova 128/4

The authors of the research describe the catastrophic hygienic conditions in this building in November 2012: Rodents were running around in the hallways and the apartments had cockroaches. The cellar was full of garbage and water.

The occupants were bothered by the big mess behind the building, and those living on the ground floor were unable to open their windows for fear that rodents might come into their apartments from outside. The owner was partly to blame for this state of affairs, as he takes care of absolutely nothing about the property.

The occupants had complained about the poor state of the building to the owner several times and he had promised repairs which were never performed. The occupants said he cared only about collecting the rent.

These findings were later confirmed by OSPOD (the Czech child welfare protection authority), which performed its own investigation in February 2013. According to that research, there were 28 people living in four households in the building.

The Regional Public Health Authority investigated the building in March 2013 after being contacted by nonprofit organizations and instructed the owner to exterminate it. As of the start of this year the building had become subject to collections.