Trapped in a hovel? Roma Housing Discrimination and Deprivation in European Cities
Résumé
This research report presents the main findings of a qualitative survey on the problems of access to adequate housing for people who identify themselves as Roma. The research is based on 128 qualitative in-depth interviews and 10 focus groups. 101 in-depth interviews were conducted with Roma living in difficult, disadvantaged and segregated contexts. 27 interviews were conducted with policy makers, administrators and activists at the local, regional and national levels. In France, we studied the Paris metropolitan area; in Italy, the Milan metropolitan area; in Spain, the Barcelona metropolitan area; in Hungary, the cities of Gyöngyös and Miskolc; in Romania, two municipalities in the historical region of Transylvania, in Singeorgiu de Mures (Mures County) and in Sfântu Gheorghe (Covasna County), in the Orko neighborhood. This research report does not aim to compare and analyze the urban and territorial specificities of the different cases. It analyzes them together in order to highlight the main issues faced by Roma in highly precarious housing situations. It also draws on interviews and focus group dialogues with experts and policy-makers who discussed the importance of creating a new supply of social housing and improving existing housing, as well as the urban quality of more marginalized neighborhoods. This is is structured in three main sections, one related to housing conditions, the second one on housing discrimination, and the third one on policies and policies instruments. The conclusions highlight several design and implementation principles that emerge from the research. Among others, one of the main points that emerges is the importance of the incentive function of multi-level policies (local, regional and national) to counteract anti-gypsyism while providing quality housing and urban services. Changing racist attitudes towards Roma is seen as an essential lever of housing policy. Combating antigypsyism emerges as a forward-looking, policy-oriented goal. A second point that emerges strongly is the importance of local knowledge, of listening to the people concerned, of dialogue and social consultation with them, in order to recognize the problems of social marginality, but also the social capital of disadvantaged neighborhoods, and to enable public authorities to build on this social capital to improve the economic condition of these neighborhoods through participatory and consultative processes, without going through community representatives with little legitimacy and little recognition, but directly through the citizens. The research highlighted an important aspect related to the political dynamics of the implementation of housing policies, particularly in relation to communication and information biases, with a strong convergence on the importance of clearer and more transparent allocation and assignment rules that are known and recognized. It is also in this context that activists, stakeholders, social workers and policy makers have insisted on the lack of systematic evaluation of housing policies, both in terms of quality housing provision and in terms of access and support to community services. Within this framework, research shows strong evidence of ethnic and racial discrimination against Roma, and the importance of equity measures and identifying not only practical and political solutions to specific problems at different levels of governance, but also recognizing Roma as competent and qualified actors for their implementation. And again, the importance of evaluating housing allocation and housing improvement instruments for equity purposes, taking into account local specificities, territorial disparities and inequities in the spatial distribution of resources, in order not to "forget" the most deprived and to have adequate levers to contrast discrimination and to be able to clearly communicate the results. While the political will and attitudes - including intellectual attitudes - of public authorities and policy makers towards Roma clearly emerge as key factors, the research highlights other dimensions beyond the mere political will to average and complete housing policies. In particular, the importance of the training and skills of implementing staff and social workers emerges as an issue of great importance that requires special attention. The European anti-discrimination legal framework also helps to mobilize political resources for the continuation of a housing policy adequate to the challenges, through the commitment of the different actors involved, both public and private, and not subject to the uncertainties of political changes and the rotation of mandates. In addition, there is a strong emphasis on the need not to privilege a single public policy instrument, but to have a wide variety of instruments available for housing inclusion, in order to avoid mass interventions on an ethnic-categorical basis, but to be able to personalize interventions on the basis of people's needs and capacities in the context of their family ties and commitments. Similarly, a strong emphasis on social support in dealing with banks, and more generally with financial tensions and difficulties, emerges as a central field. Although most of the experiences analyzed are on the whole quite negative, often episodic, aleatory and sometimes punitive in nature, what emerges is a serious reflection by the actors we met on how people could be better supported. Finally, a common point that emerges from both analyses of housing policy instruments is the strong indication that more attention should be paid to the most disadvantaged. On the contrary, many interventions seem to privilege only the best equipped and most competent people, albeit in housing difficulties, i.e. those who seem to succeed best in terms of housing integration and financial autonomy. The people with the most difficulties are penalized because they are considered less reliable and more endangered with regard to the objectives of full contributory autonomy. Faced with this situation, the report shows the importance that the people we interviewed attach to the design and concrete implementation of supportive and more inclusive policies explicitly targeted at the most vulnerable.
| Origine | Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s) |
|---|---|
| Licence |