Social housing and situation of Roma minority in Albania

• Author: Lindita Xhillari - Juliana Cici
• Position: Deputy Commissioner/Ombudsman
• Pages: 184-187

ISSN 2410-3918

Acces online at www.iipccl.org IIPCCL Publishing, Tirana-Albania

Academic Journal of Business, Administration, Law and Social Sciences Vol. 2 No. 1

March 2016

184

Social housing and situation of Roma minority in Albania

PhD Lindita Xhillari

Deputy Commissioner/Ombudsman

LL.M. Juliana Cici

Deputy Commissioner/Ombudsman

Abstract

The right to social housing is sanctioned as a fundamental human right in a number of

international instruments ratified by Albania, but currently this right does not find adequate

protection in Albania’s legislation.

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Affairs of the United Nations, has set

standards concerning the right to adequate housing. The right to social housing should not be

equated with having a roof over head, but should be seen as the right to live somewhere

safely and with dignity. The right to social housing should be provided to all people regardless

of their income and implemented in a manner consistent with their resources.

Lack of an adequate legal framework of the right to housing, today has consequences on

several issues as for examples the case of the eviction of Roma to the Lake area in Tirana, lack

of adequate housing, families with low income, beneficiary families by the aid schemes,

homeless women victims of domestic violence, or even the category of tenants housed in former

state apartments.

Through this paper we will seek to cover many issues and present some recommendations for

the improvement and creation of facilities for vulnerable groups such as the Roma minority,

in order to meet and set objective standards regarding social housing.

Keywords: Social housing, Roma Minority, standard, legal framework, principal rights.

Introduction

The right to social housing is closely linked with the right to own a house, a right on

a property, while other forms of housing such as rental housing or social housing

where “ownership” is missing are not considered effective. In many countries housing

policies are directed to a large extent by granting loans to buy a flat.

Thus, states have no obligation to ensure that everyone owning a home is in the quality

of the owner and it is a bad policy that housing is seen as a market issue, and constitutes

a serious violation of the right to housing.

UN special rapporteur of considering adequate housing as a component which must

be in accordance with the appropriate standard of living has criticized the way countries

rely only on loans, treating them as key components of programs housing. This is because

home loans are subject and an increasingly growing global financial market.

Thus, reliance on loans can push further into debt. According to the Special Rapporteur

of the UN: “Having examined the impact of these policies or politics of national housing to

promote ownership of the house through the granting of loans in different regions of the

world, these policies have failed to prove the possibilities for accommodation to poor. Records