50 to Homelessness & Housing Exclusion - A Programme for Romanian Roma in Wroclaw (Karolina Mroz)

50

Out-of-the-Box Housing Solutions

to Homelessness & Housing Exclusion

Solution 29

A Programme for Romanian Roma in Wrocław

T

he House of Peace Fondation is an NGO based in Wrocław, Poland. It runs programs in the field of peace education, conflict management and peer mediation.

Since 2013, in close cooperation with the Municipality of Wrocław and the Municipal Social Assistance Center, it has been conducting pilot projects implementing conflict management methods in the Polish education system and in local communities. Its strategy is led by board chair Karolina Mróz, who has extensive experience in conflict management and dialogue building, and has co-authored several city strategies and interdisciplinary analyses.

The challenge addressed In Poland, no public agency or institution has a clear responsibility for helping Roma or vulnerable EU citizens coming from other member states. Since 1994, Wrocław, the fourth largest city in Poland, has been a destination of Romanian Roma citizens undertaking economic migration. They built and settled an illegal settlement which expanded after Poland

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and Romania joined the European Union. After 25 years, there were about 150 people (adults and children) living in horrible conditions and in conflict with the neighbourhood.

The solution In April 2018, the settlement was dismantled and the 31 families moved into flats rented from private landlords by the House of Peace Foundation. During the year some families left Wrocław or rented homes by themselves and the programme now benefits 23 families. The whole of Wrocław’s community is involved in the programme: private landlords, neighbours, school communities, healthcare providers, NGOs, the police, the courts, volunteers and local and governmental officials. To work together with employees of the different public services, cooperation is organised in thematic groups. They meet regularly to diagnose the situation of families and help families solve their problems.

The story The existence of this settlement became the object of conflict between the local and national government, as well as between the local government and NGOs or activists. The House of Peace Foundation, as a conflict management-focused NGO, attended the process with mediation and facilitation methods which resulted in the cross-sectoral Romanian Roma Residents of Wrocław Programme. The Foundation became

House of Peace Foundation #Inclusion #CrossSectoralCooperation #Empowerment Poland

families who were the most socially excluded. They are now more integrated within Polish society and observe Polish rules better than others.

Financial Information To solve the problem of lack of funds, the Mayor of Wrocław decided to finance this programme as a regular social programme for Wrocław citizens. It is planned as a finite project which prepares Romanian Roma families to join the regular social system or to become independent. The programme will last from 2016 to 2020 with an annual budget of €420,000 (of which €25,000 is paid by the families themselves). The budget consists of salaries for the management team, assistant team, housing costs and other necessary costs like training for staff and dissemination. It is fully financed by the municipality of Wrocław.

For more information

Chapter 5

a programme leader coordinating work between institutions, NGOs, schools, and delivering training homes and assistance to families who decided to start their own journey to self-independence. It happened because there was no other organisation ready to take responsibility for a project of such size and complexity. The Foundation didn’t have any prior experience in this field. After signing a contract, families move into training flats. They are not able to choose their first accommodation but it is adequate to meet their needs. A room payment rate of €80 was decided, which equates to more or less 40% of the rental market prices and is about the same price as for social housing. Each family benefits from personalised assistance, based on cooperation with the family members. The families are able to pay the rent with the help of the Polish child-basic-income (monthly allowance for each child) and most families have at least one member who earns money. The biggest impact observed is for the

Karolina Mróz k.mroz@dompokoju.org

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