The Constitutional Court (ÚS) has said that the uncertainty associated with housing can threaten people’s trust in the democratic rule of law. The Czech Republic lacks a law on social housing, the court said. It said this is a long-term unsustainable situation that contradicts the state’s international obligations. While the court today rejected a complaint by tenants of municipal flats in Olomouc, the ruling also criticised systemic shortcomings related to housing in the Czech Republic. The court pointed to the poverty trade, which it said is an immoral abuse of human hardship. The ministries of labour and local development say they are now finalising the law on housing support.
Local Development Minister Ivan Bartos (Pirates) said his ministry and the Labour Ministry are now finalizing the law on housing support. According to Labour Minister Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL), if the legislative process goes smoothly, it could be six months earlier.
The court appeals to the legislator to take active steps to adopt the law on social housing, said David Uhlíř, the judge-rapporteur. “Otherwise, the crisis in social housing risks escalating. It has long been evident that these difficulties will in future affect not only those at risk of poverty, but also, in view of inflation and rising energy prices, the middle class, the elderly, single mothers, students and young people,” the ruling reads.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Maroš Matiaško, believes the ruling can help improve the situation. International human rights organisations have also drawn attention to the problems, he said. “The court dismissed the complaint on the merits, which is also negative news for the complainants, but it nevertheless highlighted a systemic problem that people in vulnerable situations feel, and that is the absence of a social housing system,” Matiaško told the Czech News Agency.
According to the Constitutional Court, social benefits are not a solution if there is no effective and effective access to decent housing. The court pointed to the poverty trade, where benefits are drawn by people who in fact live in completely inadequate and undignified housing. Housing benefit then ends up in the hands of landlords whose real intention is not to provide adequate housing but to draw the maximum amount of state benefit possible.
“This phenomenon constitutes, according to the Constitutional Court, an indecent abuse of human hardship and an overstepping of the bounds of decency, while it is undoubtedly possible to imagine a more expedient channeling of public property into the realisation of the residents’ right to housing,” the ruling states. According to the Constitutional Court, a wealthy society like the Czech Republic cannot leave people living on the streets, without shelter or in daily insecurity about the roof over their heads, unless it is their free choice. Nor can vulnerable people be left in the care of charities, volunteers or non-profit organisations.
The court dealt with the situation following a complaint by tenants of Roma origin from Olomouc. They brought an action before the regional court seeking a declaration that the city had committed unlawful intervention by failing to take steps to desegregate the excluded locality and by its housing policy contributing to the perpetuation of social exclusion. They were unsuccessful before the Regional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court.
The actors lived successively at several addresses in Olomouc municipal flats. They pointed to the poor technical and hygienic condition of the flats. The administrative courts, when considering the action, focused mainly on the question whether the applicants had a public subjective right to housing. According to the Regional Court, no, because the law does not expressly provide for such a right.
According to the Constitutional Court, it can be inferred from the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms that everyone who is in material need has the right to such assistance as is necessary to ensure basic living conditions. However, the right to housing or the right to adequate housing cannot be invoked directly before the courts. Indeed, social rights can be claimed only within the limits of the law. According to the Constitutional Court, the absence of an appropriate law is a serious error by the Czech state.
“The way forward is not through an individual complaint or an individual dispute, it is necessary for the Czech Republic to take concrete steps to fulfil its obligation,” Uhlíř said.
The three-member chamber of the Constitutional Court was not unanimous. Judge Ludvík David proposed to uphold the complaint. He said the courts had erred by not paying sufficient attention to possible discrimination against Romani tenants. “I find it unacceptable that the general courts did not address the issue of possible discrimination at all,” David said. Matiaško, who is likely to appeal to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on behalf of the complainants, shares his different opinion.
The law on social housing was already planned by the former governments in previous electoral periods. The cabinet of Bohuslav Sobotka (ČSSD) did not agree on the standard and did not pass it. The government of Andrej Babiš (ANO) soon replaced the promised legislation with a subsidy programme, which, for example, was used to build 70 flats in 2020. The current government of Petr Fiala (ODS) states in its programme declaration that it will prepare a law on housing support. “The law has been a debt for a long time. The state has owed it to citizens since about the 1990s,” Bartoš told reporters recently. According to him, his office and the Labour Ministry have prepared a paragraph text, which is now being considered by the relevant departments of both ministries. It envisages the creation of contact points in municipalities that would provide advice, help find an apartment or mediate guarantees to landlords. A financing system and rules for social and affordable housing are to be set up.
According to the legislative plan, the government should receive the law in October and it should be in force from 2025. “If the legislative process goes well, the law could be effective as early as July 2024,” Jurečka told reporters today. According to him, the norm will also regulate support in social housing, with tenants to be attended by social workers.
Source: ÚS and CTK
