One of TSA’s strategic priorities is to test innovative models that break the poverty cycle among Bulgaria’s most economically disadvantaged, which includes encouraging an economy based on legal property ownership. To this end, TSA initiated a thorough review that aims to map the existing legal framework, as well as the technical and architectural infrastructure, of Romani settlements in the municipalities of Kyustendil, Peshtera, Dupnitsa, Sandanski,and Blagoevgrad.
Our primary goal at this stage is to develop a comprehensive overview of the housing situation in these local Roma communities. The team of experts also managed to identify major challenges related to urban planning, and they identified measures that need to be undertaken with the help of municipal authorities to improve living conditions in these neighborhoods.
In order to improve housing conditions and the well-being of the residents of these neighborhoods, TSA plans to use the study to choose two out of the five municipalities in which to develop more comprehensive interventions.