Representatives of city districts have met with their city administration counterparts to jointly tackle a housing availability crisis. The city administration's aim is to unify housing policy in the city and broaden its cooperation with individual city districts.

Availability of housing in Prague has been seriously hampered by skyrocketing rents as well as high purchasing price of both new and old homes. The worst affected groups of citizens include single pensioners, single mothers and fathers, young families with children, and generally all low-income households. Prague city districts typically register dozens of urgent requests for social housing every year. However, the discussion showed that some districts do not track the data appropriately.

Besides investments, city districts would welcome if Prague leveraged its power to present bills to Parliaments and tried to address the issue of social housing as well as short-term and long-term lease agreements. At the moment, social housing is not defined by the law, so there are no set criteria a person in need must meet to be able to apply for a rental apartment. Each city district therefore applies its own policies with a different portion of its housing base allocated for social purposes and for free bidding by applicants.

The initial meeting will serve as a starting point for seeking further solutions to the housing availability problem.