The Right to housing is recognised by the Polish Constitution. Article 75 obligates the pubic authorities to pursue policies conducive to satisfying the housing needs of citizens, in particular combating homelessness, promoting the development of low-income housing and supporting social housing and the citizens’ efforts to obtain accommodation.
Poland has signed, but not yet ratified the Revised European Social Charter on 25/10/2005. It has neither signed nor ratified the Additional Protocol providing for a system of collective complaints.
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The article 16b of the Social Welfare Act imposes the local governments to accept the Polish Municipal Strategy for Solving the Social Problems, which embraces the problem of homelessness. The municipal strategies are particularly interesting due to the fact that the article 17 of the same Act obligates the municipality to provide, inter alia, shelter to the deprived individuals.
As far as the protection from evictions is concerned, according to the Article 1046, section 4 of the Civil Procedure Code, unless the court of law grants the debtor the right to an accommodation in the social housing, the bailiff has to suspend the eviction until the municipality transfers the debtor to a temporary accommodation unit or until the debtor himself finds one. To prevent re-introduction of the eviction onto the streets, amendments to the Protection of the Rights of Tenants, the Municipal Housing Stock and the Amendment to the Civil Code Act and to the Civil Procedures Code Act were introduced on 16.11.2011. According to the new legislation, the eviction could only be carried out after the validation of the sentence of the court of law and only to a social housing accommodation unit or a temporary accommodation unit supplied by the owner of the cleared property, or by the debtor himself or, as the last resort, by the municipality. If the municipality does not meet this requirement within six months, the eviction will be carried out into an overnight shelter or a homeless shelter.
