20 November 2025
Following a complaint originally submitted by the ERRC to the Equality Body and the Ombudsman, on 24 November 2025, the first of 41 Romani families were handed the keys to new houses in the Sveta Nedela neighbourhood of Shtip. The families had been living in dilapidated, makeshift buildings for years.
The media reported that this was one of the municipality’s largest social housing projects for years, providing the vulnerable families with a ‘roof over their heads’. The new prefabricated houses are of “standardized construction and have basic infrastructure, which means better conditions, lower health risks and more chances for a normal everyday life.”
On 2 May 2024, the ERRC submitted the complaint regarding 25 Roma residents living in unsafe, substandard conditions in the former neurology ward of an abandoned hospital. The complaint, which called out the local municipality for discriminatory neglect, drew attention to the particular plight of 25 Roma, living in the dilapidated former neurology unit of an abandoned hospital. Their living conditions were precarious and frequently perilous: in addition to illegal connections to water and electricity, excessive damp and collapsing ceilings, the families had been plagued by numerous fires, which they attributed to targeted arson attacks intended to displace them.
Plans by the municipality to rehouse the families, first announced in January 2023, failed to materialize, and this prompted the ERRC to submit the complaint alleging asserting that the Municipality of Shtip has violated constitutional and international legal standards by failing to provide equitable housing opportunities.
Prompted by the complaint, a September 2024 inspection by the Ombudsman drew attention to the abject living conditions endured by the families, and the fact that many of the children remain unenrolled in school, primarily due to financial constraints, while all the adults were unemployed and reliant on social assistance.
Following the Ombudsman’s inspection and ERRC’s continued follow up, the Municipality proceeded with a housing project for Roma families in the Sveta Nedela neighbourhood. The project was implemented with support from the European Union and the local budget, and to date, a sum of €600,000 was allocated for this purpose.
The voluntary relocation of the families is also a win for the mayor Ivan Jordanov, as it will free up several commercially attractive spots in the city: “At the same time, we are enabling the future development of our city, in those zones that for more than 15 years were temporary housing for these 41 families, so that in the following period, urbanization will be carried out on the locations that will be cleared of the ruined buildings”
This good news about the provision of safe and dignified housing for the affected families effectively addresses the main violations raised in the ERRC’s complaint. It is time for municipalities all over Europe to sit-up, pay attention, and emulate this promising practice in North Macedonia. The harsh fact is that hundreds of thousands of Romani families are still denied the fundamental right to a home where they can live in safety and dignity; and political inaction across Europe means they are forced to continue bearing the brunt of housing insecurity. There is a way to end all this.