Social housing needs at least 181,000 households

Social housing is to be regulated by a new law. According to the original plans of Sobotka's government, it was supposed to come into force in January of next year, but the deadline has been postponed by half a year. The Ministry of Labor anticipated that individuals or families spending more than 40 percent of their income on reasonable housing would be eligible for assistance. However, the threshold may change after discussions among politicians.

The research institute considered not only the costs of housing but also how much people have left after paying them. A total of 180,700 households spend more than two-fifths of their income on housing and are left with less than the minimum subsistence level. Almost 200,000 households, or nearly five percent, spend over 30 percent of their income and have less than the minimum subsistence level remaining. This amounts to 3,410 crowns monthly for a single adult, 5,970 crowns for a couple, 4,880 crowns for a single parent with a child under six, and 12,300 crowns for two adults and three children aged five, eight, and 16 years.

The research institute set the threshold for the amount that individuals or families should have left at 1.6 times the minimum. Thus a single adult should have at least 5,456 crowns left monthly after paying for housing, a single parent with two children under five should have 10,592 crowns, and parents with three children aged five, eight, and 16 should have 19,680 crowns.

Almost 353,000 households, or over eight percent, do not have this amount left and spend more than two-fifths of their income on housing. They include approximately 166,700 children and over 513,000 adults, totaling around 680,100 people. Over 30 percent of income for housing is spent by 422,700 households, or nearly one-tenth, and they do not even have 1.6 times the minimum. This group consists of nearly 640,000 adults and 246,000 children, totaling over 885,000 persons.

The authors found that people living in rental accommodation, single parents with children, and those living alone are in a worse situation. The greatest risk of losing housing is in cities with populations between 50,000 and 100,000.

There are a total of 4.28 million households in the Czech Republic. One-third of them have children. About one-fifth live in rental housing, while four percent live with relatives or acquaintances. Although more than two-thirds have their own or cooperative housing, about 611,500 households have a mortgage on it. Over 81,100 households received benefits in material need, of which more than half lived in rented accommodation.

According to the findings, two-fifths of housing supplements went to non-standard housing, such as shelters, boarding houses, or elsewhere. A total of 29,100 households received it, involving 34,300 adults and 14,200 children. A total of 22,000 supplements, or 31 percent, went to boarding houses. The state spent 3.14 billion on supplements last year.