The Ministry of Regional Development has more than a billion for the support of social housing

Prague - The Ministry for Regional Development (MMR) has prepared 1.07 billion crowns to support social housing, primarily in socially excluded areas, in two calls, mostly from European funds. The support is focused on acquiring apartments, residential buildings, non-residential spaces, and their adaptation for the needs of social housing. The maximum contribution for one project is 40 million crowns. MMR informed about this in a press release today. Support can be requested from June 20 to December 27.

"More accessible housing for socially weaker individuals should be one of the pillars of a developed state, and we are trying to support this area. The aim of these two calls is to create conditions for socially excluded individuals and those at risk of exclusion to have an easier path to their own housing," said Minister for Regional Development Karla Šlechtová (for ANO).

Support recipients can be municipalities, non-governmental non-profit organizations, churches, and ecclesiastical organizations. The projects relate to the entire territory of the Czech Republic, excluding the capital city. The minimum amount for one project is 500,000 crowns, while the maximum for municipalities is 15 million crowns and for churches and organizations, 14.2 million crowns. In the case of the regime of services of general economic interest (SGEI), defined by an EU decision, the maximum amount can rise up to 40 million crowns for all types of recipients. The amount of support for social housing in this regime is an equalization payment determined based on the method of net saved costs as the difference between the rent in social apartments provided under the SGEI and the rent at the usual local and temporal rate provided without public service obligations.

One call under the Integrated Regional Operational Program (IROP) is targeted at areas with socially excluded localities. For applicants, 635 million crowns from the European Regional Development Fund is prepared, with national co-financing amounting to another 112 million crowns. The second call concerns areas without socially excluded localities. It offers 272 million crowns from European funds and another 48 million from the state budget.

Within IROP, MMR announced 19 calls last year amounting to 30 billion crowns, and this year it aims to announce more than 30 calls for 70 billion crowns. By the end of the year, thus, recipients of European subsidies can utilize about 80 percent of the funds allocated for the 2014 - 2020 period.

IROP builds on seven regional operational programs and partially on the Integrated Operational Program from the 2007 - 2013 period. In the current programming period, recipients can draw 125 billion crowns from European funds and another approximately 19 billion crowns through national co-financing. Together with another nine operational programs, the Czech Republic can draw a total of about 648 billion crowns.