Situated in the western edge of the city, Fakulteta has an estimated population of between 20 000 and 30 000, most of them Roma [16]. Since 1949 or for 70 years now, in Fakulteta neighbourhood in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, waste collection as well as access to water and sanitation has been denied to Roma residents by the local authorities [1]. All the basic infrastructure is provided in the surrounding areas but cut short are Roma residents [1]. 

Because city of Sofia does not provide municipal waste collection services, an unregulated dump developed next to the Roma settlement causing risk of accidents. In 2011 there was around much waste accumulated in the Roma neighbourhood [14]. Thus, a former green space of the Fakulteta neighbourhood - the part where the Roma community lives, is now used as a dump site for industrial waste, produced within the Sofia municipality [1] [2].

Roma regularly collect the waste as a source of livelihoods; and burn it especially in winter to warm up exposing themselves to toxic and carcinogens substances. In addition, in the Roma neighborhoods the Roma scavengers and carters quite often will burn car tyres and other mixed materials to extract the different kinds of metal, which contaminates the air they inhale. [5][13].

In July 2011, the UN Expert travelled to Fakulteta to assess the situation of the Roma, and expressed alarm at the general conditions witnessed in  the neighborhood. The report  found minimal evidence of a strong Government commitment to Roma equality and remains unconvinced that ensuring such equality is a high priority for the current Government [3]. "Roma have no running water, sewage, paved streets, waste collection or street lights", the expert stated.  [3]

Although the Roma of Fakulteta are taxpayers, the local administration has to date done little to improve waste collection, the electricity supply, the water supply and other facilities and infrastructire of the settlment. The electrical grid in Fakulteta is very old and there is a total capacity of only seven megawatts for the whole area [2].

In 2011 a discriminatory separation wall was planned to be build by local authorities and railway company "Railway Infrastructure" (NKZI), to "protect" trains from accumulated waste [14]. 

The Roma community still lives in crowded informal settlements with no water, sewage, electricity nor green spaces, and are surrounded by a waste dump that was chosen not to be collected exactly in the Roma part of the Fakulteta neighbourhood [1] [2] [3] [4]. 

In 2014 the inhabitants organised a protest calling on the authorities to take measures for legalising their homes, and respectively the neighbourhood [12].

10 years before the protest, in April 2004, the electricity grid suffered an accident in which an underground cable burned. The result was a power failure in part of the neighbourhood [11]. Also, the company supplying electricity in Fakulteta cut the power in many occasions for unpaid bills. That same year (2004) the Sofia District Court ruled against the Sofia electric company and found out such cuts were unlawful and discriminatory [10].

Despite the legal decision the Romani inhabitants continued to experience electricity cuts. In 2006 there was another firebreak,  due to electricity cut off in the Roma settlement, in which a Romani child died and one adult was injured.  The fire started from a little candle used for lighting the house and the entire home burned into flames [7]. The Roma remain to live under these conditions until today (2019).

Mayor of Sofia promised to initiate the measures necessary to legalise Fakulteta. To date, however, this promise remains unfulfilled [2]. The people of Fakulteta have been waiting for action from Bulgarian authorities for more than seventy years. Four regulation plans have been worked out during this time but none of them provided adequate housing and infrastructure for the Roma of Fakulteta [1]. Instead a separation wall is proposed by the local government and the National Railway Infrastructure company to separate the accumulated waste and the Roma from the railways that crosses the settlement [14].