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MDRAP published the draft of the Romanian Housing Strategy

English Section Publicat de Elena Icleanu 09 Sep 2016 11:49

The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration (MDRAP) in Romania released for public consultation the draft titled National Strategy of Habitation (SNL), a document that aims to identify measures and create tools to ensure the access to housing conditions suitable for all categories of people, until 2030. The main objective of the project are legislative and institutional reforms, speeding up measures to strengthen buildings with seismic risk, better housing and increased quality of housing in old neighborhoods, housing assistance to the poor and vulnerable, and increased funds for public housing. For drafting the SNL, the Romanian Government paid 50,000 RON, and the document was drawn up in January-July 2016. By the end of October 2016, MDRAP will also complete the draft of the Public Policy for Urban Development, which will be correlated with SNL and the measures included in a national anti-poverty package. According to the SNL draft strategy, the Housing Law no. 114/1996, which has been revised repeatedly, must be replaced with a more general framework. The law will also regulate the eligibility criteria considered in the assignment of social housing (public) and will clarify the role of the National Housing Agency (ANL). According to experts, in its current form, the minimum standards determine relatively high costs of construction and significant expenses with maintenance and utility payments (especially in winter), the new project proposing the reduction of the minimum size of social housing newly built. "These issues determine the Romanian Government to pass on the background the planning of new social housing, and the beneficiaries of the existing ones will not be at risk of eviction, because of the difficulty of bearing maintenance costs. However, given the lack of land for social housing, in a limited space, public authorities can build more social housing, while reducing their surfaces", as it is shown in the SNL draft.