A project launched last year to support people in housing need in Liberec is struggling to find available private apartments, while there is a surplus of people interested in accommodation. In the first year of the three-year project’s operation, the non-profit company Návrat has found rental housing in Liberec for seven families. Its goal is to successfully obtain an apartment for at least 20 households, and it already has 80 applicants.
Návrat, which operates two shelters in Liberec, has received a 14 million crowns European subsidy for the three-year Guaranteed Housing Liberec project. While the project has enough people interested in rented housing, the problem is finding available apartments for them to rent. “We have still not managed to introduce the whole idea to a sufficient number of direct owners of flats, it is not easy to penetrate them through real estate agencies. Yet we think we have something to offer them. We have also faced criticism that we are housing refugees in our apartments, while our project supports people with long-term ties to Liberec,” Prade said.
So far, he said, they have been successful in finding apartments for seven households. “All of them have kept their apartments, are taking good care of them and, of course, paying rent. Unfortunately, one of the clients died a few months after moving in, but that’s life. The owner of the apartment continues to work with us. So we helped with the whole thing and prepared the apartment for the new tenant, whom we recently moved in. At the same time, we paid the rent arrears that had arisen in the meantime. This is also a benefit that we can offer to apartment owners,” said the director of Návrat.
A similar project to Návrat was launched in Liberec a few weeks ago by the local town hall through a new rental agency. However, the city has decided to take a slightly different route than Návrat, where it rents the apartment from the owner and only then looks for a suitable tenant, taking all the risks associated with the apartment. Rents for apartments with this guarantee are about 20 percent below market rents.
“We are building on standard leases at normal rents set by the owner, and the owner is also the one who has the final say in choosing the tenant,” Prade said. Despite the differences, he said both projects have the same advantages. “Guarantee of rent paid on time, taking care of the apartment, supporting the tenants to manage everything around the housing properly,” Prade added.
The town hall also received a subsidy of CZK 8.7 million from the Operational Programme Employment Plus to start its rental agency. This is again a three-year project, to which the city will add almost CZK 1 million from its own resources. In this project, Liberec wants to occupy at least 18 flats with tenants. Deputy mayor Jan Hruška (Piráti) said yesterday that the contract has been signed with one apartment owner so far and others are being prepared.
Source: CTK
