Without state money, ghettos may arise from housing estates

Prague - The decrease in state funds allocated for the renovation of panel houses may lead to the emergence of social ghettos in the future. Wealthier individuals may begin to move away from neglected housing estates, and only low-income people will fill their places, said the chairman of the Union of Czech and Moravian Housing Cooperatives (SČMB) Vít Vaníček at a press conference today.
    Currently, according to the union's data, there are around 1.2 million panel apartments in the Czech Republic, of which only 250,000 to 300,000 have been renovated. The amount needed for repairs, according to Vaníček, is around 350 to 400 billion crowns.
    According to the director of the Housing Development Fund (SFRB) Jan Wagner, the treasury of the Panel program will soon be empty as of early August. The government approved only 1.5 billion crowns for the fund's Panel program this year, approximately one-third of last year's amount. For the program to function effectively, it would need around four to five billion crowns, according to Vaníček.
    Minister for Regional Development Jiří Čunek, according to the union's chairman Vaníček, had prepared a proposal in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance to increase the program's budget by an additional three billion crowns. However, this proposal apparently never proceeded to the government.
    Uncertainties regarding the amount allocated for panel house repairs led the SFRB to start accepting support applications only at the beginning of April this year. At the same time, it decreased the support amount from four to two percent.