1. Who they are

The project is a result of the collaboration between the Common Front for Housing Rights (Frontul Comun pentru Dreptul la Locuire – Bucharest), the Roof (Krov nad Glavom – Belgrade) and the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (US). Initiated by Veda Popovici, Mapping Against Restitutions includes analysis and research made by Ana Vilenica and Ivana Anđelković together with map-making by Erin McElroy. For the Bucharest work specifically, key support has been provided also by Loránd Szakács, Alexandra Voivozeanu, Maria Sgârcitu, Mișa Dumitriu, Eliza Coroamă and Caius Mureșan.

With vast experience in fighting evictions and through conducting research and interviews, both FCDL and the Roof have assessed the impact of restitution in neighborhoods of Belgrade and Bucharest affected by evictions.

2. What they did

The project investigates the connections between evictions and restitutions in two key cities of the South-Eastern European region: Bucharest and Belgrade. Restitutions are processes through which properties nationalized in the 1950-1990 period are being restituted to their original pre-1950 owners or their descendants. Current research on restitutions very poorly addresses how restitutions have affected the tenants that had to leave their homes once the property went back to their original owner. With vast experience in fighting evictions and through conducting research and interviews, both FCDL and the Roof have assessed the impact of restitutions in neighborhoods affected by evictions. Based on these findings, they have created a website: mappingagainstrestitutions.org containing several in-depth analytical texts, maps and timelines. While supporting the fight for housing justice, the project has allowed to deepen the knowledge about structural processes typical of post-socialist transformations in the Eastern societies by way of understanding processes of dislocation, dispossession and gentrification. It has also strengthened an inter-organizational relationship. The resulting website was publicly launched in June 2021 with specific events in both Belgarde and Bucharest contexts.

3. Why is this relevant to the activist community?

It will remain an active tool for housing activists while they plan to expand the project by reaching out to other groups and activists within the region.

Links

mappingagainstrestitutions.org (psw: restitutions)