Inclusive Housing Measures and Integrated Services

1. Inclusive Housing Measures and Integrated Services Eszter Somogyi Thematic Expert Karvina Learning Cluster April, 2012

2. Aim of the workshop • Discuss and exchange ideas on inclusive housing measures and integrated services • Further develop the housing related measures in LAPs • Discuss some of the main housing related problems such as illegal/insecure housing situations and affordability • Establish a more integrated approach to housing measures • Discuss possible funding scenarios

3. Main dimensions of housing problems • Location in the city, Segregation (level of deprivation/social mix, size) • Legal issues: • Illegal settlements • Lack of legal title to housing (owners, tenants) • Lack of registered address entitlement to social benefits • Quality of housing: • Substandard units • public utilities: lack of infrastructure or terminated utility services, illegal connections • Overcrowdedness • Unhealthy circumstances • Affordability problem: rent, housing maintenance costs, cost of legalisation Metropolitan Research Institute

4. Roma neighbourhoods of the cities • Camps (Udine, Bologna, Bobigny): • mostly illegal, but some legal camps for travellers • No public utilities, infrastructure, bad hygenic conditions • Immigrants with no legal documentation • Social housing (Almeria, Budapest, Glasgow, Kosice, Torrent): • Majority or significant part of the stock • Dilapidated conditions, small, overcrowded • Disconnected utlitiy services Metropolitan Research Institute

5. Roma neighbourhoods of the cities • Private rental housing (Karvina, Glasgow /Budapest, Bologna, Udine) • Substandard units/ dilapidated, overcrowded • Owner occupied (Nagykálló, Almeria Budapest) • Single family houses, multi-units buildings • Some better quality • Level of segregataion – varies • Inner city areas – more mixed • Outer parts • Outside, more isolated (camps, LuníkIX) Metropolitan Research Institute

6. Illegal housing situations • Illegal and insecure housing situation • Mostly illegal camps, public land, • Illegal occupation of social rentals, squatter • Terminated rent contracts • Guest families • Disconnected public utilities, illegal connections to utilities • Undocumented purchases of apartments Strong relation to affordability problems Metropolitan Research Institute

7. Affordability problems • Low and often irregular income • Unemployment, poorly educated people • small social housing sector, but even the low rent is unaffordable • Illegal immigrants are not entitled to social housing • Terminated rental contract, arrears – not entitled for housing allowance • Private rentals: high rent, not legally rented out – consequences on social benefit, illegal evictions Metropolitan Research Institute

8. Good examples 1. Dispersal programe – Madrid • Slum clearance, rehousing people to integrated part of the city into social housing • Purchasing apartments, quota system – evenly distribute families in districts • Formal agreement between the institute managing the program and the relevant municipal departments • social suuport to families before rehousing • Formal agreement with families, social clause of rental contract • Conflict mediation with the new neighbours Metropolitan Research Institute

9. Good examples 2. Area based regeneration: Budapest, Magdolna • aim: increase quality of life and reinforcing social cohesion • Housing measures target the neediest living in tenement buildings (4) (condominiums) • Active involvement of tenants: planning implementation and maintenance periods • Formal agreements with tenants, representatives of each building. Conflict resolution • Tenant assosication • Social, education, employment, crime prevention programme Metropolitan Research Institute

10. Good examples 3. Integrated services - Ostrava • NGO: Living Together • Housing measures: 30 new social housing units parly for Roma, partly for non-Roma • Tenants participation in preparation and construction, managing board • Community centres: social service, housing related assistence,Nest service. Job service Transitional housing, crime prevention service, community development and anti-discrimination programme • Partnership building with municipalites and authorities

11. Planned housing measures in the LAPs • Camps: • Upgrading camps • Legalising migrants and enabling them to leave the camps • Moving people to social and private rentals (already existing practices) – increase the supply (Bo,U) (T) • Providing rent allowance for social and private tenants • transitory housing (U, By,) • Use unoccupied social housing (T) • Refurbishment of existing housing • Construction of new housing • Owner occupied - assisted self constructions (Bo, N) • New technologies to decrease housing maintenance costs (N) • Social housing – integrated in the city (T) - national programme(Ko) • Not planning direct housing measures at this stage • By:first legalising the migrants. G: affecting national housing policy

12. Planned measures for involving residents • High priority: engagement and collaboration with Roma via local organisations and Roma groups (G) (T) • Options discussed with Roma to match needs and measures (Bo) • Awareness raising, include private rentals into social housing provision (U) • In planning: information provision only (N) • Important to involve them in all stages but no concrete measures (Ko) • Involve Roma families in maintenance of housing and other activiities • Not specified yet

13. Planned integrated measures - Already in place but needs strenghteninig in some points Advocacy, advise and crisis support service (G) • Already formal agreement between stakeholders (U) • Cooperation between services and public organisations and NGOs • IS provided by NGOs connecting people to enabling them to use existing services (By) • Main challenge: strenghtening coordination and institutional capacieites, incresing capacities of existing services involving more the NGOs (Ko) Metropolitan Research Institute

14. Funding • Funding: • Not specified yet (N, Bo) • State/regional/municipal/EU (U) • Mainly municipal ? (Bo) • Jessica, ESF (Ko) • ERDF for marginalised groups: not directly indicated in the LAPs • Construction, purchase of social housing • Renovation of existing social housing, condominiums

15. Problems indicated by the cities • Funding: • no sufficient funds are available for housing • Economic crisis – decreasing resources to services and housing measures • Additional man-power needs additional resources • Difficult to match needs and solutions • Involvement of house owners is difficult, private landlords • Limited resources of the target group, Roma families • Attitude of general public, discrimination in the housing market against Roma • Roma families do not meet the eligibility criteria of social housing • Migrants have no access to social housing • Lack of cooperation between city and district municipalites

16. Principles for housing measures • Approach: the emphasis is not to purely upgrade the physical condition of housing but to improve the housing conditions of excluded people = Roma • Tackling segregation is important to stop the process of ghettoisation and avoid the generation of new ghettoes/ deprived areas • Affordabilty is a crucial issue to deliver sustainable measures • Involvement of Roma/vulnerable groups is a main condition of sustainability