Roma Policy Lab

Housing, infrastructure, environment

Project: “Integrated measures in support of Roma inclusion in the municipality of Dupnitsa”

The project is aimed at Roma living on the territory of the four Roma neighborhoods in the municipality of Dupnitsa, numbering 5,100 people. Among ethnic minorities and especially among the Roma population, there are various factors that feed poverty – early school leaving, low education, long-term unemployment and lack of work habits, limited employment opportunities, poor living conditions, lack of access to health, social and social services. and educational services.

Building Future For All: Urban Planning in Roma Settlements

Illegal and informal housing is a problem in Bulgaria. Demolishing Roma neighborhoods does not solve the problem. This Handbook presents a model that works as a viable alternative to evictions and demolition. Through urban planning, municipalities can endorse or amend zoning plans to allow families to formalize built houses and buy the plots of land where they live. As a result, municipalities will achieve greater stability, security, and economic opportunity for all.

Project: “Together today, together tomorrow – local communities in support of improved early childhood education and care”

The goal of the project is to improve the access to education, healthcare and social skills development for children aged 0-6 in Malko Tarnovo municipality who do not attend or do not have access to kindergarten or nursery, or live in isolated rural areas, urban and/or poor areas with a concentration of problems at risk of poverty, social exclusion and marginalization.

The absence of the state

For vulnerable groups, poor housing conditions are part of a vicious cycle of mutually reinforcing vulnerabilities. See more here:

Project: “Project Generation Facility”

The Project Generation Facility (PGF) is a special facility of the Open Society Institute – Sofia for supporting CSOs which work on equal Roma inclusion to develop integration projects, access financing and effectively implement them with resources provided by available financing programmes.

Project “Research Based Arguments for New Housing Policies in Benefit of All”

The aim of the project was to support the development of adequate municipal and national housing policies and to contribute to the improvement of the housing conditions of vulnerable groups in Bulgaria. Habitat Bulgaria carried out detailed sociological housing needs research in four Roma communities in the the two pilot regions – Sliven and Targovishte. See more here: