Fewer contact points and stricter terms: Czech lawmakers propose amendments to bill on support for housing
In a bill that could become a new law on support for housing if adopted, the number of contact points on housing meant to aid people with addressing their housing needs could be decreased to just 115 places countrywide compared to the Government's original bill. The contact points would also mainly exist in localities where a higher number of people are at risk of losing their housing and where there are also Labor Office branches.
That is the content of a comprehensive amendment to the bill adopted by the Committee on Public Administration in the lower house on Thursday, 6 February. A second reading of the bill could be realized in the Chamber of Deputies at the start of March.
The bill submitted by the Government counted on contact points for housing in every municipality with expanded scope, which according to the current information number 205 municipalities. The original bill proposed by the Government presumed that 352 new jobs would be created by the move and that the financial cost would be CZK 348 million [EUR 14 million].
Minister for Regional Development Petr Kulhánek (for the Mayors and Independents Party – STAN) said during the Committee session that after negotiating with the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) club in the lower house, the amendment was drafted to lower the number of contact points. The comprehensive amendment to the bill also proposes that the apartment owners who make their units available through the housing system should have to prove they are not in debt to the owners association for the housing, lawmaker Eva Fialová (Association of Dissatisfied Citizens – ANO), the rapporteur for the Committee, told the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
The bill also counts on introducing what is called “pre-assistance”. Other amendments to the bill that have been adopted modify, for instance, eviction in cases where the tenant is unwilling to collaborate with the assistance service.
“If it will be clearly demonstrable that the client is refusing to cooperate, then the contract can be broken,” Fialová said. Another bill in the lower house offers the idea of interim assistance.
Interim assistance would start after the two years of housing support end, and if the client were to then move into another apartment, they would receive two months of assistance in that new housing. During the Committee session, members heard that the Labor and Social Affairs Ministry and the Ministry for Regional Development are now drafting an amendment to add to the bill during the second reading.
Kulhánek described that amendment as touching on the planned welfare reform and having more of a technical character regarding the interconnection of the systems. According to the head of the Affordable Housing Concept Department at the Ministry for Regional Development, Anna Hájková, this will be about checking in detail whether an applicant is actually in need of housing.
The Labor Office will monitor the applicant, assessing the assets and income of the given household to see whether they fall into the target group for this service. Hájková said this will not be a new type of monitoring, just a Labor Office audit.
The ministries’ amendment should be ready by the week of 20-24 February.
