Jak žijí v Brně Romové?/ Romas housing dilemma in Brno

Brno – Romové jsou téma, kterému česká společnost věnuje velký prostor. Většinou se diskuse týká diskriminace nebo nadužívání sociálních dávek. Na tuto problematiku se dá ale podívat i z druhé strany, na podmínky, ve kterých i přes vysoké příspěvky státu žijí Romové na ubytovně Markéty Kuncové v Brně a jak je možno tuto situaci řešit.

Michaela Nováková
237768@mail.muni.cz

In front of Marketa Kuncova hostel are young children, who have drawn the game in chalk on the sidewalk and are playing about money. You can hear gypsy music over whole street. Inside the entrance door is small notice board – „Don´t write on the wall“ and „ On Monday, everybody must have his hair checked for lice.“
At the 4th floor, there in a small room beside destroyed bathroom under reconstruction is young mother Žaneta Horváthová. Horváthová, 24, is one of the rare mothers with fewer than two children. She has one son, 8-year-old David, for whom she says she only wants the best possible education - and a better future than hers. However, she says he has no chance to move. „There are horrible conditions, rents are very big, we pay every month another and another fees. I could be glad, that I can buy for my son some new clothes. But now, we have no chance to get new council flat, but this house, it´s awful.“
Horváthová and her son are among the 200 adults and 130 children living in one of Brno ’s most infamous Roma housing quarters. Neighbors don’t like it, but neither do the Roma. Not only do they say they have nowhere else to go, they already pay really big rents for someone, who live from social benefits. They pay around ten thousand for one big room, but it is double the average of rents, that are regulated from government. But neither the city is not able to do in this situation some progress. There is not enough free council flats, find normal flats for Roma people with for example more than three children is out of reach. “We don´t have many free flats, because in old types of these flats there has been living old people for years and don´t want to change their seats. And when we build new ones, there are many people asking for council flats and most of them are much more able to pay rents each month than the Roma are,” says Marek Svitavský, vice-town mayor of Brno- Židenice. And now, this situation is inconvenient for Roma and for residents too. Sometimes there is intolerance between them and somebody can call this race hatred.
This storey house in city-district Židenice is from its owner called only like hostel. “It was not our intention to make from this object normal house with some flats. At first, we wanted to hire rooms for season labours for several months, so they would change. From the second side, now we should be sure, that we get each month the same rents,” explain one of the owners from RHERO s.r.o. company, Robert Hrdina. And then he refer to the fact, that this hostel is the only one, that hire rooms to families with children. “We tried to find for people asking us for help with their housing new flat on hire, we gave them many phone numbers, but the second question from holders was- where are you from, your origins etc., and when they heard they are Roma, often the answer was- no, I´m sorry, we just hired this flat for somebody else,” said Lenka Sládečková, head of non-profit organization DDM Zábrdovice for Roma people.
But for most of householders, this house is their home. Horváthová has lived there almost three years. She´s come here from Francouzská alley, where she lived illegally and that´s why she had to leave this house. She wasn´t the only one, there were a lot of Roma people that lost their houses for ejection and come here, to ubytovna Markéta Kuncová´s. “My brother and sister recommended me to come here,” says Horváthová. Someone stay there, someone got council flat and someone move. Horváthová wants to get the council flat too: “ If this is possible, I would pay the same money or more. Because it will be my own flat, better condition, no one would come and want some fee. But it´s impossible,” explain Horváthová her really big interest to get new flat and move on. When she moved in this house she started to pay five thousand czech crowns, but now there is bigger rent. The basic rent is still five thousand, but she must pay first week thousand for hot water, second week for new bathroom five hundred etc. It´s makes almost eight thousand. She lived in one small room with her boyfriend and her son. Kitchen and bathroom Horváthová shares with flat-dwellers from second room. As Hrdina said, he and his company hires there not whole room but a bed. For one bed is rent 100-120 per day, but sometimes, this is only 80,-. For three-bed room is rent ten thousands. “I know, that there are families with many children, so I try don´t take whole rent for each children. These families than pay in addition some fees for water and electricity,not whole tax for one bed. It seems to me like very good solution than take money for each children,” explain Hrdina. Each of rooms has electrometer, gratis is 300 kW, and watermeter. But sums of money, that Roma families pay off for electricity, water and other fees are quite big, around fifteen hundred and no one can check this. “I have to pay for new bathroom, but this is not my flat, not my bathroom and no one knows how long we could stay here, so why I must pay this? But I can´t say No, he (Hrdina) will eject me,” Horváthová is complaining. The municipality office is conscious of this situation, but they couldn´t solve this problem. “ Hrdina is self-employed and he as an owner of this house, he can make with his estate what he wants to. We already know about strange fees and bad condition here, but the only thing we can do is to call hygienist or Trades licensing office”, told Svitavský. Trade licensing office can control accounts, if company has there each fee and proof of payment. Hygienists can only control hygienic condition at the hostel. And it as an impulse from the City, that started many controls at this hostel and send there these hygienists and trade licensing office. RHERO company for example once they needed to have even check for their gass-adapter, that they didn´t use per years and it´s closed by gass-company. That was the only way for city office, how to influence the situation in this hostel. “This conditions, in which live around three hundred people should be called unsatisfactory, but controls from every offices are right and nothing was changed,” told Sládečková. Not even that Horváthová and her family don’t have bathroom for months and her mother has mildew on the roofliner are for hygienists good reason to make some measure.
But even if hygienists close hostel, problem will be not solved. About 330 Roma people would be without lodging. And city office has no plan how to change this situation or what if this would happened. They have not so much council flats to secure Roma people lodging. “Now we have approximately six free council flats per month. But we prefer to give this flat to somebody who we are sure that he can pay us rent each month.” For selection of applications for council flats there is special commission. They have to know, if applicant will be able to pay rent and if this flat is good for his. But most of these free council flats are too small, only one room and kitchen and bathroom. Approximately five or six council flats per year are assign to Roma families. The second reason is, that until Roma people will live in Marketa Kuncova´s hostel, they have claim to get benefits for housing. That means, that if they have evidence of paying rent, they will get from Ministry of labour and social affairs almost whole rent back. And this make Hrdina and city office sure, that they are able to pay rents. But after their movement to council flats, they lost their claim to benefit for housing, because this type of flats is already state-aided. And city office has no guarantee, that they will pay. Maybe it is non effective for state, but kind for businessmen and Roma people have where to live.
As Svitavský said, these situation has for future only one solution, but this is politically so sensitive, that everybody is afraid to make a decision. “It will be best to build new for example ten houses, not so much comfortable, but not so much expensive too. This buildings will be under the City administration, so rents would be lower than on Marketa Kuncova´s hostel. It´ll be better not to build everything in one disctrict, but one in each, because if we build it only on one place, it will evoke many problems, maybe race hatred and people will not agree with this city decision ” Something like this project is on discussion on Municipality Brno for years. And now, it starts to make some plans and project about this and maybe in several year, it will be done.
But these solutions are on the czech scene politically non popular. It started with current mayor of KDU-ČSL Jiří Čunek, who build some quite similar house like there maybe will be, people called this “Čunkárna”. And discussion about this house, racism in politic scene was there over months. It´s possible, that now it´s too late to solve the “Roma question” without being accused of discrimination.