Trafficking in poverty? Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic, won't buy out residential hotel until the owner lowers the price
The local assembly of Jablonec nad Nisou, Czech Republic has not yet approved the purchase of the Neptun residential hotel there because the negotiated price of CZK 56.5 million [EUR 2.26 million] still seems too high to them. That price is one-third higher than real estate market estimates of its value, but the owner really wants CZK 58 million [EUR 2.32 million] for it.
What the local assembly has supported is just the intention to buy out the residential hotel, and it has also commissioned Mayor Miloš Vele (Civic Democratic Party – ODS) to renegotiate with the owner and get better terms for the town. Located on Liberecká Street, the Neptun, once a hotel for tourists, is today the most problematic residential hotel in the foothill town.
The town hall would like to take advantage of subsidies to reconstruct the nine-storey building, which currently has more than 40 small units, into municipally-owned housing. “We’ve had several rounds of meetings where we agreed in principle on the parameters, the price is a compromise,” said Vele, who has been negotiating the terms of the buyout of the residential hotel with the owner.
According to Vele, the town has been following the situation in the Neptun’s neighborhood, which has been worsening for years, but the facility is private property, which means the town hall can only address the consequences of this phenomenon, not the causes. “A locale that should be a regular part of town has become a symbol of social problems, poor living conditions, and the concerns of the inhabitants of the surrounding houses. Today we had the key to how to transform it in our hands. I hope we haven’t lost that chance,” the mayor said last week in response to the local assembly’s decision.
Vele is convinced that the town must have control over what happens in its streets. Petr Mikula, chair of the Committee of Center Residents, who live closest to the Neptun in the town center, has expressed its appreciation for the fact that the town is trying to solve the problem, saying “The Committee of Center Residents unanimously agrees that the Neptun residential hotel is the biggest problem here in the town center as far as security goes.”
According to local police, the locality surrounding the former hotel for tourists is the worst in town when it comes to crime, with patrols summoned there on practically a daily basis. To increase security there, the local police have installed CCTV cameras for non-stop surveillance.
However, for many local assembly members, the negotiated cost of the purchase was unacceptable. “I’m glad the town is addressing this problem, because yes, it is necessary to resolve it. I’m in favor of it being resolved, I’m in favor of buying the Neptun, but not on these terms. It’s absolutely, absolutely, for me, a non-starter on these terms, almost 57 million is a limit I won’t cross,” opposition assembly member Josef Hejtmánek (Association of Dissatisfied Citizens – ANO) said.
According to Hejtmánek, reconstructing the hotel into an apartment building will not come cheap. “That won’t be a million or two, or 10, not even 50, we’re talking on the order of hundreds of millions,” he said.
Jablonec nad Nisou is the second-biggest town in the Liberec Region at more than 46,000 inhabitants. However, it is one of the towns in the Czech Republic showing a significantly higher proportion of residents living in material distress and drawing welfare than is usual in the rest of the country.
According to a report on exclusion from housing published by the Platform for Social Housing and the For Housing initiative, while in 2008 there were just 81 people living in Jablonec nad Nisou who were drawing housing benefits, by 2023 there were already 481 such persons, almost six times as many.
Of the estimated 800 people living in material distress and drawing welfare in Jablonec nad Nisou, 240 of them, including children, are living in residential hotels.
