The report “Homeless People and the Right to Housing in Belarus” was prepared by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee in cooperation with Human Constanta and LIBERECO. The initiative aimed to identify the problems faced by homeless people in Belarus, draw attention to those affected, improve their situation, and demand that their rights be respected. The report is the first comprehensive document to address this issue.
It analyses the Belarusian authorities’ state policy on homelessness and highlights the obstacles faced by homeless people in exercising their rights to shelter and housing. The study criticises the insufficient attention paid to the problem of homelessness and recommends that the Belarusian government introduce a comprehensive programme to prevent, reduce, and alleviate homelessness.
The three human rights organisations also summarise in twelve recommendations the measures that the Belarusian authorities should take to enable homeless people to enjoy their human rights. The report is based on an evaluation of Belarusian legislation. It reveals a lack of reliable statistics on the extent of homelessness in Belarus, which contributes to the neglect of the problem in this Eastern European country. Furthermore, the lack of policy in this area leads to the persecution of independent homeless aid initiatives.
In personal interviews conducted between November 2018 and January 2019 in Minsk and two other cities, homeless people also described how their access to public spaces is restricted. The report documents several such cases, showing how homeless people risk their health when they are forced to seek less safe places to sleep.
The report also analyses the procedures for providing social housing and finds that homeless people are excluded from these procedures in their current form. This is because the existing legal provisions in the event of evictions do not provide for the provision of alternative accommodation. This, combined with limited access to justice in such cases, increases the risk of becoming homeless in a difficult financial situation.
In addition to the report, an online map with support services for homeless people has been published, along with several videos featuring civil society activists who work with homeless people.