According to estimations by experts, approximately 100-130 thousand apartments would need to be refurbished each year in order to modernize the building stock, whilst the actual yearly renovation rate is far lower in Hungary, representing less than 3% in case of shallow renovations, less than 1% medium renovations (resulting in 30-60% energy savings) and approximately 0.1-0.2% deep renovations (resulting in more than 60% energy savings) (Szórádi, 2020).

The other problem is that in most cases energy renovations are carried out reactively, without a technical plan and without the involvement of experts, usually after something breaks down. The consequence is frequently that no significant improvement in energy efficiency is achieved. Suboptimal solutions are carried out, which do not exploit the potential of a certain building for energy savings and thus lock it in higher energy consumption for decades (lock-in effect). It is therefore necessary to change renovation habits and to encourage renovators towards complex renovations based on technical designs that exploit energy saving potentials (Illésné Szécsi et al., 2021).

This realization led to the creation of the RenoHUb project, which aims to stimulate a renovation wave and help renovators maximize the savings potential of their property. RenoPont, a one-stop-shop advisory network supporting the energy renovation of residential buildings, was established following other one-stop-shop models successfully operating in several European countries.

A series of background studies were carried out to understand the needs of homeowners who want to energy renovate their flat or house and how to help them most effectively. The results showed that the main motivations for renovators are aesthetics and comfort and that renovating an average family home can increase its market value by 20%.

The project started in November 2019 and is being currently implemented under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, though the service is aimed to be self-sustained by April 2023, which is the end of the project period, thus contributing to a more environmentally and socially sustainable future in a profitable way.

Read more about RenoHUB and other on-the-ground initiatives towards Just Energy Transition in the latest REE Observatory publication ‘Rethinking energy efficiency in time of an energy crisis’.

Arpad and his wife Klara signed up as a host family through the solidarity accommodation program.
“When our relatives found out about our plan to offer a solidarity rental, they became concerned. They listed all the arguments against it.” However, Arpad and Klara are not worried about any potential damages or losses. He says, “If you feel the urge to help, you should find a way that works best for you. You should only give as much as you can.”

“Everything happened so fast. A couple of days after we applied, the program operators reached out to us. There was a mom and her 17-year-old daughter who were looking for a place to live in Budapest for a few months.”

At that time, the couple was still renovating the second apartment that they bought a few months ago. The renovations could not be completed by the time a woman from Ukraine and her teenage daughter moved in in mid-March. But Arpad still managed to paint the walls.

The refugee family came from eastern Ukraine, close to the Russian border in an area that is badly affected by the armed conflict. Both the mother and daughter are quiet and keep their distance.

Ensuring privacy and dignity

“The family plans to settle in for the long term, they do not want to leave Budapest. They have started to look for jobs; the mother now works as a cleaner in a school. We live in the same building, but we do not talk or meet often. In my opinion, when I provide accommodation for a family, I also need to ensure their privacy. In the beginning, we brought them a couple of things, but it made them rather uncomfortable.  We want to respect their boundary and let them keep their dignity. I feel it is better to give them space.”

If we will be able to provide further accommodation to the family after the contract expires, of course we will do so. If not, we will help them to find another one. Also, we do not mind if anything will be slightly damaged in the flat by the time they move out. We think it is more important to make sure these families do not have to spend weeks or months on the street. Especially those who came from a war zone and experienced such horrible things.”

Share the good things

According to Arpad, a priest once told him, “Should you get any good, share it with others. Should you get any bad, keep it to yourself and turn it into something good.”

“I try to live my life by this principle. If there is anything I can give to someone, I will not keep it to myself. I would rather give it to someone in greater need. Of course, we could use the income from renting the apartment. But comparing our needs to this family’s, we would happily give up that money for a while,” says Arpad.

In an effort to maintain peace and force Roma families to assimilate, authorities tried to enforce a 60:40% rule whereby the ethnic majority and Roma minority would live side by side. The methodology was set up for failure from the beginning as the authorities allocated flats to Roma families haphazardly, without understanding or taking into account social rivalry and tensions amongst the various Roma groups. As a result, extended families were separated from each other, and enemies ended up becoming neighbors. Sometimes most basic interactions, even crossing the street at the same time, would cause fight to break out. As the area’s troubling reputation grew, other ethnic groups gradually moved away. This, along with growing racism towards Roma groups, paved the way towards full segregation and the ensuing neglect of the area.

The emergences of the Roma slum

The segregation was seen at all levels in the society. Out of the two nurseries in the district, one was restricted to Roma children only. And while older children attended schools in different parts of the city, an elementary school solely for Roma children opened in 1983. The original capacity of the school, capped at 300 students, was exceeded more than twice in 1999/2000 forcing the school to run two shifts.

Unofficial estimates suggest that at some point, Lunik IX housed more than 11,000 people; sometimes cramming 30-40 people in three or four-room flats. Overcrowding in living spaces and poor hygiene have also caused numerous epidemic outbreaks from head lice to hepatitis. The overcrowded setting is made more bleak by an unemployment rate that surpasses 90%.

Authorities contributed to further degeneration of the ghetto when it was decided to move people in debt, homeless and other problematic citizens to the Lunik IX district. Unpaid energy, utilities, and garbage collection bills rose to thousands of euros. In 2008, authorities carried out remediation of the first two apartment buildings due to structural damage, and several others followed later.

Pope Francis visits Lunik IX

During his papal visit to Slovakia in 2021, Pope Francis included a visit to Lunik IX, bringing the state authorities, local municipalities and media attention to the marginalization and poverty of the Roma population.

Preparations for his visit included clearing piles of garbage around apartment buildings that had reached in height the first floor and multiple reconstructions of roads and pavements. Artists painted a mural on one of the apartment buildings featuring drawings of flowers that grow between the cracks in walls, collected by the children in the ghetto: symbolizing that beauty and tenacity find their way even in difficult conditions.

A beam of hope

In 2021, a partnership between the municipality, private sector, and NGOs kickstarted a project enabling construction of family houses in Lunik IX. The project resulted in the completion of a community center, which includes a space dedicated to activities for children and families.

Shortly after the opening of the community center, the first Roma family started building their new home. With support of Habitat for Humanity, ETP Slovakia, a local nonprofit organization, runs the community center and provides supervision, consultations and legal advice, as well as microloans for home improvements. Other partners, such as Wienerberger Slovakia, have provided donation of construction materials such as bricks, bringing down the overall building expenses by half.

Skepticism towards the project amongst the community has quickly shifted and more families have expressed interest in microloans. If families meet the selection criteria, enroll in financial literacy training and successfully set aside money for more than one year, more families will be enabled to self-build a decent place to live.

In a context of soaring inflation and energy prices, more households will be affected by energy poverty in the coming months, and countries in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region and in the former Soviet Union republics (CIS region) are no exception. This region has the most energy-poor people in Europe, due to high energy prices and poor energy efficiency of the buildings, heating systems and household appliances. It also has a high share of multi apartment family buildings, making renovation works more complex and difficult to undertake without coordinated action.

ComAct aims to develop a new approach to make interventions affordable, substantially influence energy costs and consequently reduce the high energy poverty level in the CEE and CIS region. What makes ComAct stand out is that it tackles energy poverty using three main dimensions: by activating communities, by developing and adapting financial tools and by optimising technical solutions that provide most favourable cost-benefit ratio for multi apartment buildings. Present in five pilot locations Hungary, Bulgaria, Republic of North Macedonia, Lithuania and Ukraine, ComAct partners directly engage with energy-poor households and all relevant key local stakeholders. These pilots will demonstrate applicability, benefits and potential for alleviating energy poverty in the 5 countries.

The Fit for 55 package and 2021 recast EPBD proposal stress the importance of energy poverty alleviation. Despite welcoming the increasing attention of the Commission for energy poverty, there is a need for a more comprehensive and tailored coverage of energy poverty in EU policy. ComAct calls for an EU-wide definition of energy poverty, a crucial step in order to monitor at national level, share best practices and take concrete steps to alleviate energy poverty. In the first phase of the project, ComAct created a new understanding of energy poverty in the context of multi-family buildings in the CEE and CIS environment.