{"id":210,"date":"2018-12-05T12:35:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T10:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/4h4n9.ahang.hu\/en\/?p=210"},"modified":"2019-04-05T15:06:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T13:06:17","slug":"campaign-against-the-eviction-of-families-leading-to-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/4h4n9.ahang.hu\/en\/campaigns\/campaign-against-the-eviction-of-families-leading-to-homelessness\/2018\/12\/05\/","title":{"rendered":"Campaign against the eviction of families leading to homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cNow we are nowhere\u201d – In the Year of the Families, why aren\u2019t we protecting the families that are falling apart?<\/strong><\/p>\n
We talk often about people enduring winter on the streets, but we forget to talk about those who are on the edge of the same fate, those still with a chance to be protected: We forget to talk about the families holding on tight at the edge of the rift while not getting any sensible help.<\/p>\n
Panni and her partner lost their home when the foreign currency loan that took collapsed and the same thing happened to M\u00e1ria and her family because of a small amount of unpaid debt. These are parents with several children who are trying to apply for a council flat, trying to give their children a decent upbringing, trying to get themselves together. Thousands of families like these could be saved from falling apart by a simple change of the law. This issue should be on the agenda instead of taking poor, ill people to court who are sleeping on the streets.<\/p>\n
We meet the couple and their daughter in a shopping centre carpark out of town. It is a rainy November day and there is nowhere comfortable to go to talk. We end up sitting down on a bench in a secluded area. We can\u2019t go to their place – there is no such thing. The parents of five had to leave their home in the Zugl\u00f3 area of Budapest due to having overdue bills and not being able to pay the 200-300,000 forints (\u20ac600-900) they owed. They had no idea they could ask to pay in instalments – the local family care centre didn\u2019t inform them possible solutions. Since then, they have been living at the grandmother\u2019s one-bedroom rented flat, paying 70,000 forints (\u20ac220) to her for a mouldy room where, according to the mother, it is impossible to provide proper conditions for the children.<\/p>\n
She is deeply concerned by this. One of the children has developed asthma, the other children are frequently ill, too. M\u00e1ria \u2013 let\u2019s call her that \u2013 knows the difference now. Once she managed to rent a place \u201cwhere it was possible to keep things tidy and clean, where there was hot and cold water and where the clothes could dry. In a mouldy place that is falling apart, all these things are impossible\u201d.<\/p>\n
Because of these conditions, child protection services have taken the children under protection and in the spring they may remove the nine-, ten-, 12- and 14-year-old children from the family (their oldest child, a boy, has since officially become an adult). They may take this action because, again, the family is facing eviction as the grandmother herself is in a great deal of debt. They don\u2019t know where they could go. A period of five years where they have been unable to apply for a council flat because of a minor mistake on a form is about to end but, as we are about to see, even applicants with more experience are finding it hard to find a home.<\/p>\n
Maria and her family have no hope of finding a home as no one wants to rent a flat to a family with multiple children, even though they could afford a modest one thanks to the temporary jobs they hold down. The parents are in a state of panic. They are terrified that when the moratorium ends and they are evicted, they will have nowhere to go, their children will be taken away from them and they will never be returned to them.<\/p>\n
No way back<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u201cThey have good reason to be scared. Taking children back to the family step by step is uncommon.\u201d \u2013 says Dr Zsuzsanna Gy\u0151rffy, head rapporteur of the law in the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights. It is she who presented last year\u2019s comprehensive report examining child protection cases involving money issues in Hungary: \u201cIf a child is taken out of the family, then it is very likely that he or she is going to stay in the care system until officially becoming an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the children are taken away, the family\u2019s situation extends even further beyond hope; there is less chance they will be able to find a place in a temporary home for families, while the emotional distance between parents and children begins to grow. Keeping contact is often impossible because the parents have no money to travel and if the children are staying with foster families, the parents are not allowed to meet them in their home. They can only see them in a dull office somewhere and they cannot take them anywhere. The family falls apart, the parents stay in a homeless shelter while the children are either kept a foster family or at a children\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
According to child protection laws, no child may be removed from a family because of its financial situation alone, but the above-mentioned report by the ombudsman declares that despite this, in the areas examined the reason one third of children who are placed in care cannot go back to their families is because of their financial situation. But the state is not that strict with itself when it comes to the circumstances of the children it looks after. \u201cA colleague of mine once asked a very relevant question: Can the children be taken away from the state due to financial issues?\u201d says Dr Gy\u0151rffy.<\/p>\n
The care system seems unable to accord with the simplest protocols and rules (which are not too generous anyway). Children under the age of 12 should live with foster parents, yet many still live in crowded children\u2019s homes. I myself once went to a home where instead of the maximum 12 allowed there were 19 children, with carers attempting to manage on such a small budget they could barely afford basics like toiletries. And yet they are still regarded as a financial burden on the state. The most recent figures are not available, but even back in 2013 the cost of a child in a children\u2019s home was 210,000 forints (\u20ac650) a month and 91,000 forints (\u20ac280) when with foster parents. It\u2019s worth noting that a foster parent is theoretically allowed to raise six children in total (including his or her own), but according to the professionals, there are foster families with ten or more.<\/p>\n
So the question arises: Why can\u2019t the situation of the family be fixed with the help of this large amount of money, which in the case of more children can go up to one million forints (\u20ac3,000) per month?<\/p>\n
The consequences of a bad decision<\/strong><\/p>\n
The life of Panni Gyetvai and her family would be on track if a small fraction of the available funds helped them with their housing. Their example shows that there are thousands of families on the edge of the tragedy \u2013 families that we would not think could be in such a situation.<\/p>\n