15 December 2021

Round table on “Equal access to housing for Roma in Vidin”

NGO Organization Drom

NGO Organization Drom organized a round table on “Equal access to housing for Roma in Vidin” in order to provide an update of the key challenges in Vidin and the whole country with the participation of key local stakeholders. The participants connected through an online platform because of the Covid-19 restrictions, which did not permit gatherings in person.

Ms. Donka Panayotova, chair of NGO Organization Drom” welcomed the audience and introduced the topic of the round table to the participants. She then passed the floor to the lawyer of NGO Organization Drom – Ms. Tanya Kaltzeva, who discussed the current state and problems of housing in the Roma district "New Road" and the work of NGO Organization Drom. Both, Ms. Kaltzeva and Ms. Panayotova explained that one of the key issues with the access to housing was the impossibility of Roma households to pay the fees for legislation of their houses through installments over a certain period of time. The whole process of regularization of the housing, undertaken by Vidin Municipality, is due to the support of NGO Organization Drom, which has helped the change the local legislation.

Then, Mr. Rumyan Russinov took the floor. He emphasized that what NGO Organization Drom has done in respect to access to housing in Vidin is quite valuable. In fact, the organization has gained five years of experience in access to housing and can serve as a best practice model to other municipalities in the country. In fact, most of the locations of Roma neighborhoods in Bulgaria are not included in the Cadaster Maps and the detailed development plans of the municipalities. This means that there is no policy for improvement of housing conditions, there is no appropriate infrastructure in place. This means also that this creates prerequisite for illegal housing. The statute of these locations needs to be set up.  Furthermore, Ms. Donka Panayotova accentuated on the fact that many Roma emigrants have started sending back savings to their families who are now able to pay for the legalization of their houses. Ms. Mariela Savkova, Manager of the Vidin District Information center, and other participants, asked how many of the properties in the Roma neighborhood have been already legalized. In fact, these neighborhoods cannot take part in the Programs of European Structural and Investment Funds because of the missing regularization of the neighborhood. The representatives of NGO Organization Drom responded that when they started the project on access to housing in Vidin in 2016, there were less than 30 % of the houses in the Roma neighborhood, which were legalized. At present, there are close to 50 % of the houses that are legalized in the Vidin Roma Neighborhood.

The participants in the round table concluded that there are looking forward to a more active involvement of the Municipality in promoting legalization of the houses in the Roma neighborhood in Vidin. The participants in the round table discussion found it very important that NGO Organization Drom has conducted an awareness campaign in the last five years for the Roma Community in Vidin throughout. As a result, there is no doubt that the process runs in the right direction.