Improving the quality of life in the municipality of Motru

By project PROXIMITIES

Published on 10 March 2025

Romania

Sud-Vest Oltenia

Motru

About this good practice

Due to the mono-industrial character of the municipality as well as the layoffs from mining and its continuous restructuring, Motru is facing a high unemployment rate and a progressive degradation of the standard of living. The community of Motru faces the following major social problems: high unemployment rate; high degree of poverty; increasing the dependency of the families of those laid off by the local public authorities; social marginalization.As a result, in order to mitigate these phenomena, the intervention of the local administration was necessary by offering social services to ensure an alternative system for institutionalization and a condition for respecting everyone's right to live and work. In this regard, access to a quality infrastructure is necessary: utilities, roads, passages, parking lots, decent housing, safety conditions, health, education and social services, in a clean environment. The lack of housing has determined the accumulation of a large number of requests for social housing, addressed by young families, families with modest incomes who do not have the necessary resources to buy or build their own housing. The project also contained a Component B-Modernization of the 7 alleys located in peripheral urban area and other areas of Motru, thus ensuring adequate road and pedestrian traffic in areas where no infrastructure rehabilitation has been carried out in the last 40 years.
All the citizens of Motru Municipality benefit from the project.

Expert opinion

In the European Union, social housing is recognized as a critical tool for promoting social inclusion, reducing poverty, and ensuring the right to adequate housing as outlined in the European Pillar of Social Rights. EU policies emphasize the role of social housing in supporting vulnerable groups, including low-income households, the elderly, migrants, and people with disabilities. One of the key benefits of social housing in the EU context is its ability to address housing affordability. Rising private market rents across Europe have led to a growing housing cost burden for many citizens. Social housing offers a solution by providing rents tailored to income levels, ensuring that more people can afford decent accommodation. As the issue of rising housing prices and affordability is true to most European cities, this good practice can be of great inspiration to them, and can be transferred to other Municipalities.

Magda Michaliková

Works at Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform

Resources needed

The project was financed through the 2014-2020 ROP and was implemented through an implementation team designated by the beneficiary and assisted by external consultants.The total value of the project was 14.246.400.43 lei, aprox 2.850.000 euro

Evidence of success

In order to solve these problems,were built 30 social housing units located in a block of collective housing in Motru peripheral urban area. The project led to the improvement of quality of life for the inhabitants of Motru because it responded to over 100 requests for social housing from Motru citizens but also from the citizens of the surrounding villages.

Potential for learning or transfer

Considering the changes made in the city's infrastructure, as well as the large number of citizens who benefited from the new social houses, as well as the surrounding urban landscape, the project has an increased transferability potential as many cities in Europe face similar problems.