Supporting the legalization of facilities in Roma substandard settlements

The housing quality of the Roma population, as well as the legal uncertainty caused by the ownership of illegal housing, are the reasons why the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) and the Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights (Yukom) support the legalization of facilities in 10 sub-standard settlements in 10 local self-government units (LGUs). The service will be provided until 31 October 2020, organized under the EU-funded program "EU Support to Roma Inclusion - Strengthening Local Communities for Roma Inclusion", implemented by the SCTM.

This support involves legal, technical and logistical assistance to the competent authorities of the LGUs dealing with the legalization processes on the one hand and the Roma community on the other, and is available to Leskovac, Pirot, Aleksinac, Vrsac, Pozarevac, Surdulica, Mladenovac, Sombor, Paracin and Lebane.

The first objective of this activity is to map the problems in the area of ​​legalization and bottlenecks in the system, which often occur during the procedure, as well as the good practices that municipalities have in order to implement the legislation as effectively as possible.

The second objective is to promote Roma inclusion in Serbia by improving housing conditions by providing direct support to the Roma population in the process of legalizing of residential facilities.

The activities envisaged by the project are:

·         Analysis of archives of requests for legalization;

·         Drafting a 'Report' with recommendations;

·         Development of local action plans;

·         Organization of forums in Roma settlements;

·         Implementation of training for associates employed in LGU;

·         Providing direct support to the Roma population in legalization of procedures.