As colorful, warm homes for homeless animals spring up in some cities, others are taking a step into the blizzard past. It turns out that according to some authorities, the solution to homelessness is to remove it from sight. A container social housing development is being built in Otwock.
"Away from others"
In the suburban city of Otwock, in late December 2020, Mayor Jaroslaw Margielski announced a solution to the problem of numerous debtors. The city plans to purchase social containers into which those burdened with tenant debt will be forcibly evicted.
The debts of tenants who do not pay municipal rents to the Municipal Management Board amount to more than PLN 10 million plus interest. There are some who have never paid and are in arrears even more than 100 thousand zlotys. They are laughing in our faces and in the faces of their paying neighbors," Bartłomiej Kozłowski, director of the ZGM in Otwock, commented on the city's decision, according to Gazeta Wyborcza.
Where will the containers be placed?
Away from other residents, so that the tenants of the containers will not be a nuisance to them.replies the ZGM director.
unadapted
No one will be surprised by the fact that such containers are unfit for habitation. When designing the containers, no one took into account that the house needed ventilation, after all, their original use was temporary. No one planned to cook for the whole family there, wash, dry clothes. Constant moisture and developing mold lead to respiratory diseases.
The lack of insulation and insulating carries huge electricity bills in its wake. It turns out that in Polish conditions, during the heating season, the maintenance of such a barracks can amount to as much as 1,500 zlotys per month. For their "temporary" residents, these are sums they are unable to pay.
citydestruction
As we know from history, this type of segregation not only demolishes the community, but also does not promote urban development. There is a reason why all similar settlements appeared and almost immediately disappeared. The first container settlement in Poland was built in Lodz in 1993. Others were built in 1997, on the occasion of a massive flood that destroyed many homes. They were set up temporarily, in a temporary crisis. But in the case of the debtors' settlement, there is no alternative being built in parallel.
People were losing their homes. In response to this problem, large container settlements have grown in St. Catherine near Wroclaw or in Nowa Sol, among others. Crisis conditions created opportunities where temporary architecture was used for the first time as a sub-standard for social housing. Containers that work best as temporary spaces, such as locker rooms or warehouses, became housing for entire families. - Katarzyna Czarnota, a sociologist and member of the Wielkopolska Tenants Association, tells the OKO.press portal.
In the past year, Otwock was not the only municipality that decided to try to rid the city of the problem and evict debtors to its outskirts. In Lublin's Lubartow, the city council took similar steps. Encountering opposition, officials explained that it was for the benefit of those in need.
That year there was a situation where an apartment in one of the blocks of apartments burned down and the tenants had nowhere to go. When these containers appear, it will be possible to provide housing for a shorter period of time at any time, the city council spokesman assured in an interview with Radio Lublin.
outside the law
Tenant activists active in Lubartow, were quick to react. It turns out that such ideas are not only stigmatizing and segregate society and divide the city, but are unlawful. Ten years ago, Amnesty International commissioned an analysis of the housing conditions provided by the city for homeless people and debtors. Legally (the law has not changed to this day), the definition of a building is one that is permanently attached to the ground, separated by building partitions and has a foundation and roof. A social container does not meet the criteria. City authorities, meanwhile, are trying to get around the law by using the name "residential container."
But no such thing exists. According to the law, but also according to conscience, a container is and will only be a temporary dwelling in crisis.
solutions
If they want to increase the availability of social housing, they should first raise the threshold for applying for an allocation. In the aforementioned Lubartow, family income could not exceed half the amount of the average pension, or about PLN 2,400 gross. In a four-person household, this is PLN 600 gross per person, which is less than the social minimum. In other words, social housing was available only to people living in extreme poverty. This is scandalous. The resolution was changed only after our intervention. - Kinga Kulik of Lublin Tenant Action tells Gazeta Wyborcza.
In the case of Lubartow, the actions of protesting residents and activists have paid off. Although it seems that the mayor did not accept the allegations of social segregation, he did put the investment on hold. What will happen to the container ghetto plan in Otwock?
Ownership versus maintenance
Waiting for social housing is often a years-long struggle and thousands of applications to the office. Another problem, once you get such an apartment, is its maintenance.
According to a study by the Warsaw Tenants' Association, as many as 50,000 people in communal housing are not connected to the municipal heating plant. This means that they have to heat themselves with electricity or gas. Why does this pose a problem? The bills are several times the price of rent, which often leaves residents of such soclaj spaces without living conditions.
The paradox is that in order to get an apartment, you have to be poor, but in order to keep it, you have to be rich," Antoni Wiesztort of the Warsaw Tenants Association told Metro Warsaw.
Activists and organizations are the last resort.
Heart of the City helps people in homelessness crisis.
We, too, are against the creation of such places, separation from society never goes well. - The activists of the Heart of the City organization comment on the container settlement on Facebook.
The organization lost its premises in Warsaw's Praga district just a few months ago. Why? They themselves were affected by segregation. The neighbor, i.e. the owner of the luxury hostel, did not fit the profile of their activities and notoriously disturbed the homeless.
It is with great regret that we inform you that we are giving up the premises for the Heart of the City. We are no longer able to participate in the conflict that continues in our backyard. The attacks caused by our actions on behalf of people in crisis of homelessness, ricochet off our kind neighbors and fellow users of the courtyard," the activists wrote. But they haven't given up.
A money drop is currently underway to renovate a new unit, and the surplus will be used to renovate housing for people in crisis.
"Every zloty is important, as well as every liter of white paint!":https://pomagam.pl/4h3yhrew
