Indicator history

There is no historical evidence of such type of segregation. The problem with the housing situation of the Roma has historical roots that go back to the 1960s, when the communist government moved Roma families to two-room houses. As these did not meet the needs of Roma families as they were larger than Bulgarian families, many started to illegally expand these buildings by adding rooms, even entire buildings with inadequate planning and infrastructure. Since 1989 the housing situation for Roma has deteriorated even more than it did for the overall population. The majority of the buildings where Roma live are built without necessary building permits, in contravention of building requirement, and outside of zoning plans of cities. This has made around 25 per cent of Roma housing illegal. The illegal construction has also prevented the inclusion of many buildings in the municipal utility infrastructure (roads, electricity, waste collection, sewerage, or piped water). Even in neighbourhoods where utilities are provided population density is so great that it overloads existing utility services and infrastructure, often resulting in inadequate sanitation, health risks, and communal tensions. Therefore the great majority of Roma neighbourhoods could be described as ghettos. There are occasionally Bulgarians living in these neighborhoods.