Professional organisations have called for the withdrawal of draft legislation on the mandatory sale of local council-owned rental apartments, originally maintained by councils to help vulnerable citizens. At a joint press conference in front of Parliament, representatives of 32 organisations said the proposal would harm a basic right enshrined in the constitution and made social housing policy impossible.
Zsolt Szegfalvi, the leader of Habitat for Humanity Hungary, said the proposal would be the final blow to an already struggling rental flat system and social housing policy. Also, it lacked any professional background, he said. Vera Kov谩cs, a co-leader of Utc谩r贸l Lak谩sba, an NGO working to provide housing for homeless citizens, said social mobility would all but disappear if rental housing was eliminated. Young people wanting to find work in the city would be unable to move there unless they had property in the family, which would exclude those coming from state care, among others, she said. M谩rton Gede of the V谩ros Mindenki茅 group noted that selling council-owned rental apartments would deprive homeless people of the hope of moving to 鈥渘ormal housing鈥� from crowded shelters.
Andr谩s Pik贸, the mayor of Budapest鈥檚 8th district, said the proposal 鈥渋sn鈥檛 simply stupid, it鈥檚 sinful鈥�. It would expose vulnerable citizens to fraudsters, as many would need to turn to loan sharks to buy their flats, he said. Pik贸 noted an amendment proposal that would restrict the legislation to historical buildings. 鈥淲hile that would be a huge political success, the law would remain tantamount to robbery,鈥� he said, and called on the government to withdraw the proposal entirely.
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