Social housing must be supported by the government and ministries

Social housing in Vsetín

Ústí nad Labem - The leadership of Ústí nad Labem believes that the government and relevant ministries must help cities with social housing. The costs are too high for cities to solve on their own. They also disagree with the actions of the demonstrators, who stormed the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs on Monday during a protest for the preservation of the hostel in the Krásné Březno district. The residents of the hostel reportedly knew that it was a temporary solution and that the hostel would be closing. Karel Rouč, the city spokesman, informed ČTK about this.
"The leadership of the statutory city of Ústí nad Labem considers social housing to be a serious problem, one that should involve the government and relevant ministries more significantly in its resolution. For example, the government Agency for Social Inclusion, with which the city has been collaborating for several years, has been informed about this issue from the beginning, but no specific financial assistance for addressing social housing in Ústí nad Labem has been provided to date," stated the spokesman.

Social housing in Vienna

Ústí, according to Rouč, is looking for various grant titles to address social housing. "However, the case reflects the current state of social housing in the Czech Republic and should definitely be addressed at the level of individual ministries, the government, or the government Agency for Social Inclusion. The costs to resolve this issue are too high for municipal budgets to bear alone," he added, stating that the city has already identified some properties. They want to seek a grant that would allow them to purchase and renovate one of the existing hostels for social rental housing. "Current grant titles that at least partially deal with social housing have proven unsuitable for this purpose," he supplemented.
At the end of January, the hostel on Čelakovského Street in the Krásné Březno district of Ústí will close. The owner of the hostel, CPI, made this decision last December. "The residents of the facility have essentially completely demolished it. Torn-off faucets caused water emergencies several times. Piled-up waste in the buildings attracted unwanted insects and rodents," stated Daniel Bacík, the director of CPI BYTY, to ČTK. Inspections showed that living in such conditions poses a threat to residents' lives.
"Most of the residents are actively looking for housing elsewhere, and many of them have already succeeded and secured accommodation," claims the city spokesman. This is also confirmed by Vít Kučera from the People in Need organization, but many searched in vain. "We contacted landlords of more than 20 apartments who were willing to accommodate larger families from the hostel, but unfortunately, most of the offered apartments either did not meet the size and layout requirements, or the apartments had disproportionately high deposits, and upon closer inspection by social workers or the clients themselves, were found to be unsanitary and unsuitable for living, or the clients did not want to solve their situation in cooperation with non-profit organizations," he informed ČTK in a press release.
The city also expressed its disagreement with the protest action for the preservation of the hostel in Krásné Březno. During the protest, demonstrators entered the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in Prague on Monday and demanded a meeting with Minister Ludmila Müllerová (TOP 09). The police had to intervene. "It is evident that some of them took the problem of the families from the Krásné Březno hostel only as an excuse to promote themselves," claims Rouč.