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.

The shelter was damp, and in the winter it was very cold. Marta was diagnosed with autism just a month and a half before the Russian invasion. Worried about their safety, and with Marta’s condition deteriorating due to the war, the family decided to flee their home.

Grandma Lily explains that they first travelled to Lviv but were unable to stay because they could not afford a decent place to live. And so they set out for Poland. Their journey involved a 24-hour bus ride and a long, exhausting wait at the border. The family had never left the city of Cherkasy, let alone the country.

“Your house is your home,” says Yana, with a sad look in her eyes.

Lily and Yana used to help vulnerable families in Ukraine, and it was through fellow volunteers that they got connected to hosts in Poland. Nevertheless, they struggled for stability; two days with a couple here, a week with a family there, finally a month in a house somewhere in Warsaw. Lily suffers from cancer. And Marta’s autism complicated matters for the family.

“The woman who lived there eventually said we had to leave because she felt Marta was an ill-mannered child,” Yana explains, “despite knowing of her condition”.

Feeling they had no place left to turn, the family began making plans to return to Ukraine. Marta is strongly affected by any deviation from her routine, even a seemingly insignificant one. To avoid high stress, she needs to be surrounded by familiar places, eat the same food, see the same people. Lily’s illness, meanwhile, has no cure. But she is not only battling the disease. She is fighting for a brighter future for her daughter and granddaughter. “When Yana’s life will work out, I can die peacefully,” says Lily, fighting back tears.

A new opportunity                              

Just when they were about to give up, someone connected them to volunteers from Habitat for Humanity Poland. Soon enough Habitat’s representatives were greeting them at Habitat’s housing help kiosk at Warsaw’s train station. Though the waiting period for housing is usually long, Yana’s family was fortunate.

“They took us to an apartment - just for us. I was in shock,” says Yana. “We were so desperate; we would have been glad to share a bed between the three of us. But the volunteers made us so happy. They brought us pots and pans, dishes, blankets, and personal hygiene products. They even brought me a new mattress.”

The apartment, although small, has everything they need. “It’s a very nice neighborhood,” says Yana, adding that there is even a small park where she spends a lot of time with her daughter.

“Habitat volunteers, Tania and Carolina, are always calling us asking how we’re doing, and if there’s anything else that we need,” Yana continues. “My mother’s treatment involves self-administered shots, which need to be kept cold. The refrigerator wasn’t working very well, and they immediately replaced it with a new one,” she said with a smile. Although Lily’s condition is terminal, she is slowly starting to feel better.

The future

While the family hopes to one day return to Ukraine, for now they feel safe and supported. This is thanks to Habitat for Humanity Poland’s social rental program, which has been adapted to serve refugees and has helped more than 1,000 people who fled Ukraine find a place to live in Poland.

Habitat has similarly helped refugees with their housing needs in Romania and Hungary, said Rishana Haniffa, regional director of Habitat’s Ukraine crisis response. “Habitat’s response plan has provided over 4,500 Ukrainian refugees with short-term shelter, and over 1,200 with medium- and long-term housing solutions,” she said.

In the meantime, refugees continue to experience the ups and downs of life in new countries. Today is a good one for Lily and Yana. They have prepared a lunch to share with their visitors, three Habitat employees. Marta excitedly helps her mother bring extra chairs into the kitchen. They are eager to play the role of host. And with each bite of food and bit of conversation, the apartment feels a little more like home.