The Ministries of Regional Development and Labour have today submitted a new law on housing support. According to the draft, new housing contact centres should start operating in a number of municipalities in the Czech Republic in 2025. They would provide advice to people in housing need, register available flats and help mediate housing. Landlords should have a guarantee from regional authorities that they will receive rent or reimbursement for any damages. Tenants would be attended by social workers if necessary. The government has published the standard on its website.
The aim of the law is to reduce the number of people in housing need by at least a third from the current number of about 154,000 within ten years, announced the Ministry of Regional Development. According to the ministry, the new norm will ensure that municipalities will be funded to take measures to address the housing situation and, through prevention, reduce the state’s costs due to the impact of housing distress, as well as reduce the poverty trade. According to Regional Development Minister Ivan Bartos (Pirates), the missing housing law represents a debt owed by the state since the 1990s, and the Constitutional Court also said the norm is missing.
According to the proposal, housing contact points should be established in municipalities with extended jurisdiction. They should provide advice and mediate housing if necessary. They would keep records of people in housing need or at risk of losing their housing. It should also keep a register of available housing. It would also check whether housing meets technical or hygiene requirements. It would set up a system of support and guarantees for landlords, i.e. a guarantee of payment of damages or rent. Assistance is envisaged, and social workers should be assigned to tenants.
According to the Ministry of Regional Development, housing distress costs public budgets about CZK 2.4 billion a year. It affects employment, children’s education and health care provision. The changes are expected to cost 1.5 billion a year. But the ministry says the savings should be that high thanks to prevention and better housing, and the amounts should even out after five years.
The ministries, regions or trade unions can send comments until 28 June, after which the standard will be adjusted. The government is expected to receive it in October, according to its legislative plan. The Ministry of Regional Development said today that it will be November. The draft would apply from January 2025 and then part of the provisions from July 2025.
In its updated programme statement, the Fialova Vlada says it will prepare a law on housing support in the first two years of its term that will offer municipalities a “set of optional tools” to address the housing situation. It should set the rules for funding. The cabinet also promises to prepare “financial instruments” for the construction of affordable rental housing. At the end of the parliamentary term, up to 10,000 extra rental flats could be built per year, the government said in a statement.
The Social Housing Act was already on the cards in previous governments. The cabinet of Bohuslav Sobotka (ČSSD) did not agree on the norm and did not pass it. The government of Andrej Babiš (ANO) soon replaced the promised legislation with a subsidy programme, which was used, for example, to build 70 flats across the country in 2020.
Source: CTK
