Eviction of Roma families from the town of Vsetín
Prague 2007: Common Ground
The town of Vsetín has, over time, followed a policy aimed at what some called “socially unadaptable” families. Before 1998, these families all lived in several buildings in various parts of Vsetin. The buildings, owned by the town of Vsetin, deteriorated badly. Between 1998 and 2006 most of the residents of these buildings were moved to just one of them, a five-story apartment building next to an emergency clinic in the city center. In the end there were 64 families living in this one building—more than 300 people. Most of the families had defaulted on rent payments (37 families had problems with paying the rent). Sixty-one percent of them had never worked, according to David Zarsky, who works for a charity that supports Roma in the area.
The building by the clinic in Vsetin was badly damaged; it caught fire several times, and an official report from the town of Vsetin says disease was spreading there. People from the city and the clinic were unhappy about that.
In October 2006, the city of Vsetin demolished the building and moved its inhabitants to three places: some families moved to flats in Vsetin, some to newly built metal apartment buildings several kilometers outside of Vsetin, and six families were moved to houses in the Jesniky Mountains near Olomouc and Uherské Hradiště.
It cost 8 million Czech crowns, or about 391,000 U.S. dollars, to demolish the old building next to the clinic in Vsetin, and 40 million more to build the metal apartments outside of town at a location called Poschla.
Twenty-two families moved to flats in apartment buildings with non-Roma families in Vsetin, and 36 families, all Roma, were moved to Poschla.
To six of the families, Vsetin offered a loan to buy houses in the Jeseniky Mountains, and also near Olomouc and near Uherské Hradiště. These houses were, according to the state’s ombudsman, in terrible condition, and the city acted against the law in forcing people to sign a contract to buy and live in them before the residents had even seen the houses. (The law says that people have a right to choose where they live.)
At Poschla and in the flats in Vsetin, families have only a monthly contract. If they are not paying the rent, they have no legal right to stay in that flat. Another part of the residency agreement is that flats and buildings have to be kept tidy.
Municipal and social workers from an evangelical charity work together to negotiate with residents ways to pay their debts before they are evicted from their homes.
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