Czech President signs housing support bill into law, meant to aid people in housing precarity
People at risk of housing precarity in the Czech Republic will be aided by a new law on housing support next year. President Petr Pavel signed it on Tuesday, according to the website of the Communications Department at the Office of the President.
The law counts on establishing a network of contact points to provide counseling aiming to prevent housing loss, for instance. A system of financial guarantees for private landlords which will be purely voluntary, called guaranteed housing, will also be launched, as will state financial contributions to municipalities which rent the properties they own to people in housing precarity.
The Regional Development Ministry, which submitted the law, is also predicting that rental unit owners will be more willing to offer their properties for rent in the system thanks to the financial guarantees. During the debates of the bill in Parliament, those opposed to it alleged it will not result in more rental units in the system.
The law is meant to aid households whose incomes are no more than 1.43 times the subsistence minimum. Opponents of that restriction object that the income criteria is disproportionately narrow.
Regional Development Minister Petr Kulhánek (for Mayors and Independents – STAN) previously said more than 160,000 people in the Czech Republic live in housing precarity. Ten times as many people, according to him, have problems which might lead to their losing their housing.
People at risk of housing precarity will be able to rent housing that is cooperatively-owned, municipally-owned, or privately-owned more easily once the law takes effect next year. According to the minister, the law might mean landlords will not be afraid to rent their properties, which will bring more housing units into the system.
Critics of the law disagree with that prediction. During its first year, implementation of the law might cost as much as CZK 600 million [EUR 24 million], and once it is fully in operation, it could cost up to CZK 1.5 billion [EUR 60 million] per year.
Minister Kulhánek previously pointed out that housing precarity is already costing the state CZK 4.1 billion [EUR 164.4 million] per year. According to him, the law will introduce effective instruments which have tamed the problem of housing precarity elsewhere.
According to the minister, the law involves many safeguards against what are termed traffickers in poverty which will make that business no longer lucrative for them and create an alternative to their segment of the housing market. The total number of contact points to be created countrywide is 115.
The contact points will mainly open in localities with higher numbers of persons at risk of losing their housing where the Labor Office already has branches. Other municipalities will be able to decide whether to voluntarily establish their own such contact points, too.
Financial contributions will be sent to the municipalities for the contact points, which will be part of the state administration. The law also offers what is termed bridging assistance.
The assistance is meant to run after a client’s two years of housing support in a particular unit run out, and if the client then moves into a different unit, they will still be entitled to two months of assistance in their new housing. The local Labor Office will decide whether the applicant is in housing precarity.
Labor Offices will issue binding opinions on clients to the local contact points. Adoption of the law was supported by the Czech Chamber of Architects (CCA), which sent an open letter to senators about it.
According to the CCA, the law is the first step toward systemically addressing housing precarity. According to experts from the For Housing initiative, the Czech Republic can now look forward to instruments to prevent and solve housing precarity being anchored here systemically.
Organizations such as the Czech Streetwork Association, People in Need, and the Salvation Army have welcomed the law.
