1. Case-study No. & Title:
195. ‘Project for Community Housing’, Brno, The Czech Republic

1) Solving debt and other legal problems for approximately 110 Roma families living in two tenement-buildings.
2) Reconstruction of these two buildings, involving the local community

Time-planning: February 1999 - end 2001

Keywords

2. Author information:
2.1 Author’s Name
Peter Mulder

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Peter Mulder (Chairman občanské sdružení Spolu-CZ)
Spolu-CZ
P.O. Box 651
661 51 Brno-2
The Czech Republic

Tel.: +420-603-843.982 (private)
Fax: +420-5-4524.61.66 (work)
E-mail: peter.mulder@post.cz

2.3 Date recorded
28/10/2000

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice
The project has two main aims:
1) Solving debt and other legal problems for the tenants of two apartment blocks. The majority of the tenants are Roma families, in total approximately 110 individuals.
2) Reconstruction of these two buildings, involving the local community
The buildings consist of 2-3 floors, a large inner court and a backyard. They are owned by the local authorities. The ground-floor of one building is used by the Roma community centre "Drom" and the NGOs "IQ Roma Servis" and (temporarily) "Spolu-CZ". On the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor of both buildings are flats, in which mainly Roma families live. Based on discussions with the tenants of the house, the local authorities, Drom and the NGOs, the following project has been started, consisting of 4 aspects:

A) Reconstructing of the buildings
The practical part of the project, and the most expensive, is the repair of the two buildings. Connected with the points mentioned below, the local authorities agreed to carry out the reconstruction in such a way that the inhabitants do not have to move out. The main reason for this is that only then it is possible to use a comprehensive approach, to solve other problems together with the inhabitants, to give them responsibility for their housing and to foster an attachment of people to the place they are living in.

B) Community-work
Involvement of the inhabitants of the houses as much as possible is a key aspect of the project. Not only in the final stage, but from the very beginning. Also important is the co-operation between the local authorities, NGOs and local people. By organising meetings with inhabitants, assisting in meetings between inhabitants and authorities, involvement and responsibility of the local people in this project will be stimulated. This part of the project is primarily the responsibility of the NGOs .

C) Working to lower debts
After a proposal by the NGO Spolu-CZ, the local authorities have created an opportunity for people to do low-qualified work related to the reconstruction of the building for the city council and in this way to pay off debts of unpaid rent. Participation in this plan has been voluntary. The people who participated had the opportunity to restart with a clean debt-record and to have their rent-contracts regularised.

D) Solving legal problems
Closely connected with (C.) is the attempt to help inhabitants to get their legal matters (related to housing) in order. Many people had contracts that had expired, contracts in other names, invalid contracts etc. In co-operation with the local authorities and with help from legal experts, people have started to have these matters resolved.

The first results
The reconstruction of the space for the Community Centre was started in April 1999. Inhabitants have been working in and around the building. A number of people from the first building have carried out sufficient work to clear their debts and have started to pay their rents regularly. In April 2000, the local authorities officially added the second building to the project. The reconstruction of the flats was started in August 2000.

3.2 Location
The project takes place in Brno, in the Czech Republic. Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic and has approximately 400,000 inhabitants. In Brno live approximately 12,000 Romany people, which is 3% of the population. The majority of the Romanies live in two districts of the city. The houses in these districts, tenement-buildings of different sizes with small flats situated around an inner yard, are more than a 100 years old and have not been maintained for many years. The majority of the Roma live in these kinds of houses. The project "Integrated Community Housing" is directed at two of these houses, one on Bratislavská Street and one on Cejl Street.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
Minority: Roma
Target group: Approximately 100-110 Roma families, living in two tenement-buildings in a district close the city-centre of Brno, Czech Republic

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
When the project started, the costs were estimated in line with the following:

The European Development Bank in Strasbourg (connected to the Council of Europe) was asked for a loan of 32.5 mil CZK (Approximately 812,500 USD). After a long delay, a decision about this loan was due in December 2000). The City of Brno and the District Brno-Centre are responsible for the main part of these costs, including the repayment of the loan. The Czech government will also finance a small proportion of the total costs.

A problem which appeared during the second half of 2000 is that the real costs of the reconstruction appear to be much higher than estimated at the start of the project.

The costs of the work with people (community-work, mediation, etc.) are not mentioned separately in the project-budget. The activities of the different organisations and NGOs that are taking part in the project are part of, or bracketed with, their regular activities.

A budget has not yet been drawn up for other-activities related to the project (creation of employment, etc.).

3.6 Timeframe
The initiative was first proposed in February 1999, officially launched and put into practice in May 1999. The project is really a continuous process, which in fact started already when the initiative was first proposed and when local authorities, NGOs and tenants started to discuss concrete ways of solving the problems. It is expected to continue until the end of 2001, when the reconstruction will be finished. From then on, other, smaller, projects, related to this community and to the Community Housing project will continue, but they will be firmly linked with the regular activities of the different NGOs and the local authorities.

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The project was first initiated and proposed by the NGOs which are active in the district. Based on existing contacts with the local authorities, the NGOs succeeded in convincing the local authorities to start a process of close co-operation to solve the above-mentioned problems. It is a local project. The project aimed to use existing provisions at certain Czech ministries to support the project both morally and financially. For example: to what extent do existing regulations for reconstruction of old flats apply on a project like this? (They do, but only partly) Or: Do the regulations at the Ministry of Finance formally allow "working-for-debts"-projects?. (Officially not, but it has been allowed in this specific case)

The financial support from the government came in two ways:

There has been a great delay in signing the loan-agreement between the Development Bank, the City of Brno and the Czech Government. This might indicate that there is certain hidden opposition against the project on the part of both the local and national authorities

4. Good Practice Description
Participating organisations

The project takes place in Brno, in the Czech Republic. Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic and has approximately 400,000 inhabitants. In Brno live approximately 12,000 Romany people, which is 3% of the population. The majority of the Romanies live in two districts of the city. The houses in these districts, tenement-buildings of different sizes with small flats situated around an inner-yard, are more than a 100 years old and have not been maintained for many years. The majority of the Romanies live in these kinds of buildings.

The project "Community Housing" is directed at two of these buildings, one on Bratislavská Street and one on Cejl Street. The ground floor of the buildings, including the spaces around the inner yard, had been empty for years. Every now and then some of these spaces were inhabited by families who had nowhere else to live. On the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors live approximately 110 families (approximately 60 in one building, 50 in the other), the majority of them are Romanies.

The Romany community centre "Drom" is located In the building at Bratislavská-street. This centre started in 1990 with activities for Romany children and youths. Today, the centre offers leisure-time activities, education, advice and support to Romany children, youngsters and adults. The centre co-operates closely with the local authorities, police, institutions of social work, NGOs etc. to improve the situation of Romany people in Brno. The local NGO IQ Roma Servis, based in the same building, co-operates closely with Drom in all their activities. At the end of 1998 the local authorities decided to reconstruct the ground floor of this building, to be used for activities of the centre. In spring 1999 the front-part was finished. The remaining part of the reconstruction took place during 1999.

At this point the NGO Spolu Czech Republic (Spolu-CZ) became involved. Spolu-CZ is the independent Czech branch of the Dutch-based Spolu International Foundation. Spolu-CZ carries out community-work in communities with large number of Roma, and organises training for other NGOs that work in the same sphere. In co-operation with Drom, a meeting was organised with the tenants of the house:

Many people were present at this meeting, the majority of them women. Their reactions to the plans were positive. The people who were present had many ideas for the kind of activities that could be started at the centre, and for ways in which the tenants could play a role. However, one important problem appeared. Most of the families who lived in the house did not have valid rent-contracts. Most of them were in arrears with rent, electricity or gas. They were afraid that, once the local authorities decided to reconstruct the house, they would be evicted from their flats, and that there would be a Romany centre without Romanies.

Spolu-CZ came up with the idea of investigating the possibility of giving the tenants the opportunity to work off their debts instead of paying them back. The main reasons for thinking about such a possibility were twofold. On the one hand the debts were of such a scale that it would be impossible to settle them out of the low income most of the families had, and on the other hand it could be a way of involving the tenants in improving their living standard.

Looking for common interests - Involvement of the local authorities
Once this idea was presented, it necessarily meant the involvement of the local authorities. The local administration of Brno is de-centralised. Within the project, the main actor representing the City is the local authority of the district Brno-Centre. The building in which both the Drom-centre and the flats are situated is owned by the local authorities, so their approval was needed first of all.

Good working contacts exist between the director of the Drom-centre and the local authorities of the district in which area the centre is situated. This was one reason why the local authorities showed a willingness to start negotiating on the work-for-debts plan. Another reason was that the vice-mayor realised that it would be also in his interest to have a proper overview of who was living in the flats, to have the debt problem solved and to be able to carry out proper administration of the building. This resulted in the following agreement:

Initially, the local authorities were cautious in their approach towards the building at Bratislavská street. However, after a short while they decided to involve a second building in the project, situated in nearby Cejl-street. This building is similar to the one in Bratislavská street, only a bit smaller.

A comprehensive project: "Community Housing"
When working on the reconstruction of the ground floor of the house, it appeared that in fact the whole building should be reconstructed, since it was in such a bad state. This resulted in elaborating a more comprehensive plan, which was given the name "Project for Community Housing". The main aspects of this project were:

Since the project is relatively big and complicated, the main co-ordination of the project is in hands of the local authorities. This secures the involvement of other departments of the local administration in the project (like, for example, the housing-department, or the office which is responsible for maintenance of the houses). This involvement of the local authorities gives the project strong backing relative to the outside world. Support by the local authorities made it possible, for example, to get support from the Czech government and from the European Development Bank (related to the Council of Europe)

Financial support for the project
Money for this comprehensive project had to be found from different sources: The City of Brno, the Czech Government, and - mediated by the Council of Europe - through a loan from the Development Bank.. This made the project more comprehensive, but at the same time also more complex, from the point of view of organisation and co-operation. The community-work part of the project, mainly carried out by Spolu-CZ, has been partly financed by the British Know How Fund. Drom, and the NGO IQ Roma Servis which is connected to the centre, finance their active participation in the project from their own sources.

Securing the involvement of tenants throughout the project
The above-mentioned role of co-ordinator is very much directed at the co-operation between the different organisations and institutions that play a role in the project. Spolu-CZ plays two roles in the project. One is the role of expert-organisation in the realisation of the project. The second role concerns community-work. Spolu-CZ is, together with Drom and IQ Roma Servis, in daily contact with the communities who live in the two buildings in which the project takes place.

Since the project started, and since a start has been made in solving certain legal problems concerning housing, other problems have appeared:

In co-operation with the other NGOs, with all different institutions (ranging from the municipal social workers to the local gas- and electricity companies) and with the tenants, Spolu-CZ tries to address these problems and to find solutions for them.

Reaction of tenants to the project
In general, people are positive about the planned improvements to the buildings. There is a ‘silent majority’ of tenants who do not put themselves that much to the fore, but if you speak to them individually it is obvious that they realise that they have been given a great opportunity. There are others who express their appreciation more openly. There is still a minority of tenants who do not take the project seriously. They still do not pay their rents regularly (without this being caused by, for example, financial problems) and think that they will never be evicted from their flats. Unfortunately for them, the reality is already turning out to be different: The local authorities have evicted some families from their flats, who during one year incurred high levels of new debt, or who refused to settle their debts. Most of the families, however, gladly took the opportunity to work off their debts, realising that this would be the only way to get rid of the high debts and to legalise their tenancy status

Involvement of the tenants of the houses
There are meetings with tenants, and these take place on an irregular basis. They are seen by the tenants as something special. It is, however, not easy to achieve concrete results during these meetings. The tenants propose many interesting ideas , but sometimes there are practical barriers against carrying them out in close co-operation with the tenants themselves.

Another reason is that certain people are against the project for all kinds of reasons and they use these meetings to speak in general terms against the project and against the people and organisations involved, without making concrete suggestions or remarks. This often negatively influences the meetings and limits the space for other people to participate in them.

Other meetings are those with the tenant-committees. Each house has its committee which has been ‘elected’ during one of the tenants-meetings. The main task now is to find ways to work systematically and to support them in working as a collective which is really representing the community. There is a willingness to solve things. Until now, however, this did not really result in concrete steps, partly because the people are not used to taking independent initiatives.

Spolu-CZ is planning to start training for these housing-committees as soon as they are more established. This will be important, since there is a chance that these committees will gradually be given more formal responsibilities in running the buildings.

Problems which appeared during the project: Development in the community; co-operation with the local authorities
One continuous point of complication was how to synchronise the process of development within the community with the work of the local authorities. This has to do with two things:

Opposition against the project
There has been opposition to the project on different levels. Within the local authorities there are still people who do not agree with any non-standard approach towards solving problems. Also the general public is very sceptical. Partly because of the selective approach of the media in presenting the information, there is the image of Romanies getting preferential treatment. This, in turn, influences the local authorities, especially those people whose position is dependent on elections or on public opinion in general.

Opposition does not come only the majority. Romany political organisations, many of which lost their credibility among Romanies in Brno some time ago, have tried their best to ‘take over’ the project with the aim of improving their position among the Romanies in Brno. This is especially problematic, since their approach of trying to create opposition to Drom, IQ Roma Servis, Spolu-CZ and the local authorities among the Romanies will not result in the city choosing new partners to co-operate with. On the contrary, it strengthens the position of those people within the local authorities who are against the whole project: "Look, we are doing so much for these Gypsies and still they are not satisfied - let' s cancel the whole thing and they can sort it out themselves". Which might mean in the end: no reconstruction, no settling of debts and legal matters, no more non-standard solutions, and Romanies evicted from their flats.

Something that helps opponents of the project is the strict approach of the gas and electricity companies. Many of the families who were tapping gas and electricity illegally have been disconnected from the gas and/or electricity network. Legally these companies are within their rights to disconnect all households who take gas and/or electricity illegally (which, in the case of the Cejl house, was approximately 80% of the flats). Or, when there is the danger that people kill themselves with 220 volts because of these illegal connections, to disconnect electricity to the whole house. Further technical problems were identified with the supply of gas and electricity to the house, problems which have to do with the long period of hardly any maintenance of the house. The problem is, however, that families who have shown some willingness to co-operate in the project are now without gas and electricity may be prone to loosing their motivation, especially when they are being asked to make yet greater efforts. And although the companies which provide electricity and gas are independent from the municipality, it is an easy job for opponents to the to "prove" how little "these white officials" care for Romanies.

A more systematic approach
Since autumn 1999 the work on the project started to be more systematic. Slowly but surely, people from different sides have started to realise that only a co-ordinated approach will work in managing a complex project like this. More often people are officially invited to meetings and reports of meetings are made and sent to the participants. An important point of attention is to keep the decision-making processes as transparent and as straightforward as possible, and to make important decisions during meetings where all participating organisations take part, and not by two people on the phone, without any report. This will increase the status of decisions and decrease the opportunities for people to ignore decisions that have been made. The more unclear the decision-making process, the more it favours corruption.