The government agency for social inclusion will expand its activities to
17 more towns and cities around the Czech Republic in 2013, according to
the head of the agency Pavel Šimíček. The agency, set up in 2008, has
been active in 33 problem localities to date, working closely with local
authorities to resolve housing problems and creating a liaison between
people living in social exclusion and labour offices, schools and the
police. According to available data there are around 300 slums around the
Czech Republic, inhabited predominantly by members of the Romany minority.