Indicator history

An EU Agency for Fundamental Rights survey from 2009, called EU-MIDIS, looking at discrimination experiences of the Roma, asked whether people had been discriminated against by the housing agency/landlord in the past 12 months. For Romania, only 3 per cent stated that their discrimination experiences happened in such contexts. Yet, this result should also be connected, like the survey also mentions, to how many people actually sought accommodation in the past 12 months. [1] It also needs to be seen in the context of how much of a general rule it is in each of the countries surveyed (seven) to go to a housing agency when one tries to find accommodation or rather to rely on friends and family in order to avoid paying the agency fee (a rule also influenced by how high the average individual income is), of the level of intra-community renting, etc...

The phenomenon of insecure tenure (lack of documentation for the houses they have been inhabiting for years) in the case of Roma communities is also relevant in this context. The Roma Inclusion Barometer published by the Open Society Foundation Romania in 2007 showed that only 66 per cent of the Roma stated that they had a contract for their house compared to 82 per cent of the rest. Of those with a contract, 9 per cent of the Roma live in dwellings rented from the state as opposed to 1 per cent of the rest. [2]

Another important aspect is revealed by a 2011 Amnesty International report which states that: “Roma are particularly affected by the fact that the right to adequate housing is not protected in law as they have been historically excluded from access to land and property. They are further disadvantaged by the lack of social housing, in a country where 97 per cent of housing is private. Despite the challenges facing Romani communities in accessing adequate housing, the criteria used by local authorities for allocation of social housing fail to target Roma (...) Although some Roma people live in permanent structures with legal tenancy, the authorities consider many other long-standing Romani dwellings as 'informal' or illegal, and their inhabitants do not have any documentary proof of tenancy, which exacerbates their vulnerability to eviction”. [3]

Sources:

1. European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey (EU-MIDIS) Data in Focus Report, The Roma, 2009, available at: http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/attachments/EU-MIDIS_ROMA_EN.pdf (last accessed at: 19.02.2012)

2. Open Society Foundation, Roma Inclusion Barometer, 2007, p. 35, available at: http://www.soros.ro/en/publicatii.php?cat=16  (last accessed at: 19.02.2012)

3. Amnesty International, Mind the Legal Gap, Roma and the right to housing in Romania, June 2011, p. 2, available at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR39/004/2011/en/5f9becde-66e9-4262-bb3a-ff1c3681046d/eur390042011en.pdf (last accessed: 19.02.2012)