Ostrava, June 12, 2025 – At its meeting on June 9, the municipal district of Mariánské Hory and Hulváky approved a liquidation plan for the Bedřiška settlement. According to this plan, the leases of current tenants will not be extended and they will have to move out. During a meeting of the working group for Bedřiška, Ostrava Mayor Jan Dohnal stated that he plans to relocate its residents to two different locations: to houses that have not yet been built in Vesnička soužití (The Village of Coexistence) in Slezská Ostrava and to apartments in Mariánské Hory and Hulváky. The implementation of this plan would mean the destruction of our community, which we have built with great effort and love over the past 15 years.
"Mayor Hujdus probably feels cornered after Bedřiška published its demands in May and refuted the falsehoods that the city has been spreading about us, and after President Petr Pavel expressed his clear support for Bedřiška during his visit to Ostrava in May and warned against prioritizing economic interests. This is probably forcing the mayor to take even more drastic measures against the people of Bedřiška!" said Eva Lehotská, representative of the residents of Bedřiška.
The city plan envisages moving some of Bedřiška's residents to social service homes (The Village of Coexistence). However, this would be a big step backwards for Bedřiška's residents. They have already learned to take care of themselves and have created a functional and independent community. Returning to the supervision of social services would mean losing our independence and self-confidence, which could have a negative impact on our mental and social health. Helena Polhošová, a resident of Bedřiška, says: "Bedřiška is the place where I first experienced that it pays off to try. And also that someone believes in me, because as a Roma woman in this country, no one believes in me. I don't need any social services coming into my home and telling me how to live. As a community, we can take care of ourselves."
Evicting and dividing the community into two locations means losing the mutual relationships and support that are vital to Bedřiška. A technocratic view of housing, which focuses only on square meters and building regulations, ignores these human values. "The value of mutual relationships and mutual support is immeasurable," says Eva Lehotská. "Dividing the community would mean the loss of these values, which take a lot of time and energy to build and are irreplaceable for Bedřiška. Our community is like a family, where everyone looks out for each other and is willing to help. This spirit of solidarity and mutual support is what makes Bedřiška unique and strong."
The city district claims that the houses in Bedřiška are in poor condition and that their repair would be uneconomical for the city. However, these claims are questionable. For example, one of the residents of Bedřiška, who is not part of our community and who also lives in municipal rental housing (Bedřišská 6), is currently undergoing a major renovation of her house (see photo). This is the same type of Finnish house as all the others in Bedřiška, which the city claims are inefficient to repair and must therefore be demolished. Lydie Habustová, a resident of Bedřiška, comments: "How is it possible that the city has allowed the renovation of this one house, but we are not allowed to renovate our houses? We could also manage to repair our houses. We have a financing plan in place. We have already carried out various repairs at our own expense several times in the past."
The city has long avoided honest cooperation with the local community. At the beginning of June, the city leadership refused to add another representative from Bedřiška to the city's working group for Bedřiška, arguing that it was a professional group. This group consists of nine city representatives and the only representative from Bedřiška, Ms. Eva Lehotská. This is somewhat ironic, as the real experts on Bedřiška are not officials who have never personally been to Bedřiška, but us, its residents. Residents who have managed to create a unique coexistence of Roma and non-Roma people, which is a positive example of integration and communal living and can inspire other communities across Europe. If the city is unable to take care of Bedřiška's development, it should sell it to the current residents, who are fully capable of managing their own destiny and ensuring the future prosperity of the community. The residents of Bedřiška have already drawn up a clear and detailed plan to purchase the houses and land in Bedřiška and transfer them to the ownership of a social housing cooperative. This will ensure the sustainable and socially just development of the settlement. The experience and knowledge of the residents of Bedřiška are irreplaceable, and without them, no plan can be successful.
We, the residents of Bedřiška, will continue to fight for our right to remain in the homes we have built and to preserve our unique community. We are mobilizing all our supporters and journalists for the Ostrava City Council meeting on June 18, 2025, where the city district's plans will be voted on again. The city's actions to break up our community make us angry, frustrated, and sad, because justice, the protection of civil society, mutual respect, and decency are very important to us. We therefore call on city officials to meet with us so that we can work together to find a solution that will preserve what is most precious to us—our community and mutual support.
Bedřiška Ostrava
Media Contact
Eva Lehotská
spokesperson of Bedřiška
Tel.: +420 723 407 311
E-mail: eva.lehotska@volny.cz
Fb: https://www.facebook.com/ostravskabedriska/
Web: https://bedriskaprezije.cz/