The Sargsyan family, living in a Gyumri neighborhood where most residents reside in huts, haven’t had electricity for over two weeks due to an unpaid 1,600 AMD ($3.23) utility bill.

The amount may seem a pittance to some, but the family just can’t pay it.

Ruzan Matosyan, the woman of the house, shows us into the semi-dilapidated domicile where a wood stove is used both for cooking and heating.

Pots and pans litter the floor of the space that passes as a kitchen. The bathroom is also cluttered with various sized pails. There’s just the one bed in the bedroom. “That was part of my dowry. Everything else you see here isn’t ours,” says Ruzan.

The Sargsyans rent the hut (tnak) for 6,000 AMD monthly. They’ve been here for two months. There are no small kids at home. The couple, both 50, married four years ago.

“The two of us were working on farms at the time,” says Ruzan, adding that after she married Edvard the couple rented in the town of Akhouryan. They then moved to Gyumri because they couldn’t afford the 10,000 monthly rent.

Edvard’s 45-year-old epileptic brother Artyom lives with the couple. Ruzan also suffers from a disability.

The household gets by on a 27,000 AMD ($55) monthly disability pension.

Ruzan says they are in 300,000 in debt and that they somehow manage to pay the interest.

They owe the local stores and have back rent to pay on their former house in Akhouryan.

Another problem that the family faces is that the men have lost their passports and thus weren’t able to file for disability benefits on time.

Artyom says they had to take out a loan to bury his father and that they then had to sell their house to pay off the debts incurred.

“After my mother died some six or seven years ago, I lived with my sister for a while and then moved in with my brother,” says Artyom.

The brothers say they need 30,000 AMD to get new passports issued.

Ruzan says that if her husband had a passport he’d be able to travel overseas for seasonal work.

All three mostly stay at home. Ruzan goes to her uncle’s place to watch TV and pass the time. She sometimes brings home meals cooked by her uncle’s wife.

Hripsimeh Badeyan, a meter reader at the electricity utility, denied that they had shut off the family’s electricity because of an unpaid bill.

 “Do you think we are so inhumane to shut off the electricity of a family living in a tnak just for 1,600 AMD?” an irritated Badeyan told us over the phone.

She said we were mistaken and that her area had the fewest amounts of shut-offs of all because she worked with her customers and drafted a payment schedule for those unable to pay.

After checking her records, Badeyan finally recognized the Sargsyans, admitting that their electricity had indeed been shut-off.

“I know the residents of those tomiks by name rather than by address. The people living in them change all the time. I can’t keep track of all of them,” said Bedeyan.

The meter reader alleged that power was shut due to a December bill and that she herself had paid part of the bill.

“They promised to pay me back from their pension money. My assistant went back and forth for a month to get the money, to no avail. When she caught them around the table drinking, I said enough is enough, shut off their electricity. If they have enough to spend on drink, they can find the 1,600 drams they owe,” says Badeyan.