HOUSING IS A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT
Evictions, leaving tenants on the streets or in shelters without alternative housing, create an unjust reality that we are faced with every year. According to international human rights conventions and laws on preventing poverty, everyone has the right to decent living and housing. In Hungary, evictions of the poor often go unnoticed. An increasing number of people face challenges paying for housing, and encounter significant barriers, including a lack of information about their rights. The violence inherent in evictions is made invisible through the law and routinized administrative procedures. Anti-eviction human blockades, and especially when broken up by the police, have the capacity to expose that invisible, structural violence.
Despite the winter ban on evictions in Hungary, there are still 3-4.000 evictions each year, at the expense of 10-12.000 people. The moratorium only offers temporary protection, but fails to provide a permanent solution; merely masking underlying problems.