The social real estate agency More than just housing provided standard housing in Pilsen to the first hundred clients. Single women with children, Roma families, foster families and other people with limited access to the standard housing market can, thanks to the current financial support from the Norwegian Funds, draw real help from this innovative service. On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, representatives of the Social Real Estate Agency announced this fact at a press conference, stating that it is the result of a three-year project aimed at improving the integration of Roma in Pilsen.
The agency is looking for private apartment owners who are willing to rent their apartments using its assistance and guarantees. It guarantees for free the selection of suitable tenants, the course of the tenancy relationship, compliance with the tenancy agreement and financial payments. This protects and calms the legitimate claims of apartment landlords. Thanks to the appropriate setup and good experience so far, more are being added to the existing seventeen landlords.
Thanks to the private owners, the agency has concluded and managed over thirty leases in the past 5 years of existence. “While of course there are sometimes minor problems, so far we have always managed to resolve all situations positively”, says Adam Pospíšil, an expert on social inclusion at the Center for Community Work in Western Bohemia, which runs and complements the agency: “It is the main reason why the vast majority of owners cooperate with us for a long time. In addition, it is true that people who do not have equal access to housing, perhaps due to generally shared prejudices, are usually very loyal tenants and try not to let the owner down.”
To help them succeed, social workers from the collaborating organizations Here and Now, People in Need or Domus help. Separating the work of a social real estate agency, which primarily defends the interests of apartment owners, and the social work of a social service provider, which serves clients with confidence, guarantees tenants maximum professionalism in both roles and the long-term sustainability of the entire project, as it effectively prevents conflicts of interest. Director of the Here and Now organization, which is the main partner of the social real estate service More than just housing, Michaela Stehlíková, appreciates the benefits of cooperation: “The housing order is the most frequent and at the same time the most difficult agenda in the long term. After the start of cooperation with the social real estate service, our clients realistically get to standard housing, which is a basic prerequisite for the long-term improvement of their situation.”
Without the guarantees provided to landlords by the More than just housing agency, the chance of standard housing for social service clients is close to zero. This is also why our private hostels and shelters are permanently overcrowded. Thanks to the project, reasonable and socially sensitive owners are helping to solve the burning social problem of this country, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Czech Republic is aware of this as well, as part of the preparation of the Act on Social Housing, it ranks social real estate agencies on the model of More than just housing among functional and systemically supported measures in the future. Also, many cities, such as Prague, Pilsen or Liberec, are setting up similar institutions following the example of the first Pilsen social real estate agency More than just housing.
For the owners of houses and apartments, cooperation with the agency brings not only the joyful feeling of helping the weaker, but mainly real guarantees that no one offers on a similar scale in the real estate market. That is why the Bishopric of Pilsen has become a major partner of More than just housing, which has contributed four of its apartments to the project so far. “The possibility of cooperation with a social real estate agency gives us the opportunity to fulfill our social role in helping the weaker, in a professional and systematic way. That is why we want to continue to support this project and participate in its development”. says the bishop of the Pilsen diocese, Mons. Tomas Holub.
The stories of the families who, thanks to the project of the first social real estate agency in Pilsen, got their first normal housing are often different, but they agree on one thing. “Living in a normal apartment, in a normal location, is the main prerequisite for their successful integration into normal society. When you live with your children in a dormitory or in another non-standard form of housing, you do not have the opportunity to plan long-term, devote yourself fully to raising children, go to work regularly, and solve other problems. Therefore, we would like to thank all cooperating landlords and partners for giving us real chances for change, which ultimately benefits us all.” concludes Adam Pospíšil from the Center for Community Work in Western Bohemia.
Contact:
Adam Pospíšil
Phone: 702 230 549
