Brno - Some Czech municipalities set strict regulations for council flat lease that discriminate certain groups of people in getting these flats. 

In his annual report, Czech ombudsman Otakar Motejl identified five ways that municipalities attempt to prevent certain groups of people from applying for low-cost council housing.

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"The ombudsman has repeatedly encountered some people are disadvantaged when trying to get a council flat, especially people on parental or maternal leave, or that they are excluded from the list of possible applicants ahead of time," states Motejl´s report.

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The ombudsman sees it as a gender-based discrimination and wants these cases investigated by Interior Ministry. In cases when the municipalities have set discriminatory conditions, Motejl wants the ministry to stop the leasing process and appeal to the court. 

Unequal position

"The regulations introduced by the municipalities put certain people, especially the socially disadvantaged, into an unequal position, and their chances of securing themselves a living in a council flat are much slimmer or even impossible," Motejl claims.

Also, those who apply for a council flat are frequently asked to prove they have not had debts to the town hall in the past. Receiving social benefits is also a disadvantage for an applicant. This way people are "stigmatized" and cannot participate in the flat auction, a municipality´s common procedure how to lease a council flat.

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The municipalities defend themselves by claiming their strict regulations aim to disqualify possible dodgers of payments.

Private owners discriminate too

Some Czech NGOs join the criticism of the municipalities´ discriminatory conditions, too, adding that private house owners use similar methods.

"Private owners offer their flats for lease through real estates agencies, and their adds contain specification such as 'no child', 'no foreign citizen', 'not for Romani'," Petr Kubačka wrote at the web site of the NGO Via Iuris that is linked to IQ Roma civic group.

There are altogether 460,000 council flats out of a total number of one million rent flats.

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