The Roma solidarity march „City for the people, not for profit”, dedicated to victims of forced evictions, took place in Cluj-Napoca on 17 July 2015 as a cultural-civic action, part of the “So Keres, Europa?! – Changemakers’ week in Cluj-Napoca. Young Roma and Non-Roma Claim their Space in Europe” event. […] The Roma Solidarity March „City for the people, not for profit” started from Pata Rât, the garbage dump area of the city of Cluj, which hosts, along with 1000 people from Dallas, the garbage dump and from Cantonului Street, 76 families who have been forcibly evicted on 17 December 2010 from Coastei Street.
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The march called upon the local, county, national and European authorities to remind them that the right to housing is a fundamental human right. In Romania, in the last two decades, it has been restricted by a political economy and a politics of development promoted by the state institutions, which chose to support the real estate investors to the detriment of citizens. Estate business pushed to the margins of society hundreds of thousands of people across the entire country. The tenants evicted from restituted buildings, or from the apartments of older blocks of flats or worker dormitories privatized from one day to another, or from social housing on lands whose estate value increased over night as a result of urban development plans created to favour estate investors, as well as people who do not have the resources to buy or rent housing at market value, have already or could become homeless given that the state ceased to secure their right to housing.
Foto: Fundația Desire, album marsul de solidaritate al romilor 17 iulie 2015