THE HOUSING SITUATION OF ROMA COMMUNITIES ANALYSIS OF THE UNDP/WORLD BANK/EC REGIONAL ROMA SURVEY DATA
1
Policy brief Tatjana Peric
2
seem to have occurred in Bulgaria and Hungary; Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina also compare favourably on many housing indicators. By contrast, in Croatia, Romania, and the Czech Republic, progress has largely been limited to improvements in Roma households’ access to modern sanitation services.
Housing is one of the priority areas of the Decade of Roma Inclusion. The results of the 2011 Regional Roma Survey3 conducted UNDP and the World Bank, with co-funding from the European Commission (EC), suggests that this is with good reason. Disproportionate shares of Roma (compared to non-Roma living in close proximity) reside in inadequate housing without access to basic infrastructure, and as such face increased health risks. Housing deprivation is accompanied by housing insecurity: many Roma households face the threat of eviction. The right to adequate housing is a key human right: it is closely related to human development and bears special importance for minority socially vulnerable groups like Roma. International human rights law places access to adequate housing within the context of security of tenure, access to public services and infrastructure, habitability, accessibility, suitability of location and cultural adequacy. It also bans discrimination in the exercise of these rights.
Housing deprivation Notable gaps in housing conditions were reported by Roma and non-Roma survey respondents—particularly concerning access to electricity, improved water sources, and other infrastructure. Almost one third of Roma households surveyed in 2011 did not have access to piped drinking water inside their dwelling (Figure 1). In some countries this was the case for the majority of the Roma sampled: in Moldova, 66% of Roma households did not have access to improved water sources; 72% did not have access to these services in Romania. In all the countries surveyed except the Czech Republic, the share of Roma households living without piped water inside their dwelling was higher than for non-Roma households living in close proximity. The data for Croatia show the most notable gap: more than a third of Roma respondents (35%) were living without these facilities, compared to only 4% of non-Roma households.
Fortunately, Roma housing conditions seem to have improved in some respects during the 2004-2011 period. The survey data suggest that the most significant progress has occurred in access to improved sanitation services, in fewer Roma living in insecure housing conditions, and in increasing square footage in Roma dwellings. By contrast, progress in access to improved water sources, and in the number of rooms per household member in Roma dwellings, seems to have been much more limited. The largest positive changes
Even higher shares of Roma households did not have access
1/ This brief is based on a broader research paper elaborated in the context of the UNDP background series on Roma inclusion. The series includes thematic reports on employment, education, health, housing, poverty, gender, migration and civil society. The individual papers will be released in the course of 2013 and accessible from the Roma section of the UNDP BRC website: http://europeandcis.undp. org/ourwork/roma/. 2/ Tatjana Peric is an independent human rights professional and PhD Candidate in Gender Studies at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. 3/ The survey was conducted in twelve countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, the FYR of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia and Romania.
1