HY RU EN
Asset 3

Loading

End of content No more pages to load

Your search did not match any articles

Two Years Later, New Social Housing Units Still Not Provided to Poor Families in Maralik

Mariam Khalatyan

Families in the town of Maralik in Armenia's Shirak Province continue to wait to receive the housing allocated to them by the state.

Two years ago, a neighborhood in the town was set aside for this purpose. The neighborhood contains several new residential apartment blocks to serve as social housing for families in need. However, these apartments have resulted in more headaches and red tape for the residents.

One such resident awaiting an apartment is Shushan Kocharyan, who moved to Maralik from the nearby village of Kaps to get married and lives with her husband's family in a modest shack on Shiraz Street. Shushan says her family has all the necessary documents, and it's even been told the number of the apartment it will get — number 62. 

"We were supposed to [already] be in the apartment in November of last year. The mayor was always calling my mother-in-law, saying your housing issue is resolved, there's no problem," says Shushan. The family's eldest daughter, who will start school in September, confided to her parents that her friends once even asked, "Will we have to pee in a potty-chair like you if we come over?"

"My children were born in the shack, where there are no conveniences — no toilet and nowhere to do laundry. Even in the winter and spring I bathe my children outside. Let them come see," says Shushan. 

Tiring of waiting for their turn for an apartment, Shushan's husband, Gor, on June 20 broke a window of one of the ground floor one-room apartments in the building and moved in with the family. The Kocharyans justify their deed, saying that two years after being constructed, the building is still not inhabited, the doors to the entrance are locked, while they don't have basic living conditions. Local police are preparing materials for proceedings against Shushan's husband. 

"We paid the penalty; we paid compensation for the damage. But the mayor is now after us. He's forcing us to leave the apartment, [saying] we'll give [you] the apartment during the distribution [period]… God knows when they'll give it," says the mother of two. Shushan also mentioned to Hetq that the apartment allocated to them (number 62) has been allocated to someone else, a person who was raised in an orphanage. 

In 2001, Gor damaged his spine in Karabakh and is now unable to do hard physical labor; however, to make ends meet, the couple does seasonal work in the fields. The red tape related to the apartment, Shushan says, affected Gor's nervous system: he's even unable to sleep at night, waking up aghast, saying, why should I go to prison — for breaking a window? The Shirak regional administration is also aware of the issue. By Shushan's account, deputy regional governor Seyran Petrosyan was surprised why a family having the necessary documents has not yet received an apartment. Maralik mayor Artak Gevorgyan explained that the apartments weren't yet distributed to the families. 

"A man with glasses from the Ministry of Urban Development came, threatened me, said, I'll throw you down from there; you aren't supposed to stay in this house, you shouldn't enjoy this apartment," said Shushan. "They explain that I have a share of 0.96 hectares of tillage of my family's property, but I donated that to my father, now what's the problem?"

Shushan's family is demanding that which it's due and insists that it's not preparing to leave the apartment it's illegally occupying. They are gradually settling in, though they can't use gas (they don't turn it on) and haul water inside in pails. They, however, do have electricity. The family also doesn't use the door and balcony as they're locked. They use a ladder placed beneath the window to enter and exit the apartment. 

"I won't leave this house, even if there are thousands like it. I told the mayor and the local police chief: I'll fight for this house with my blood. I am capable for everything for the sake of my family and children. I'll even kill a man, but I won't take my children out of here," adds Shushan.  

Police officers regularly circled the building during the whole time the Hetq team was in Maralik. Hetq also discovered that the mayor's driver, who is from the village of Hayrenyats, also became one of the new owners of these apartments. Furthermore, townsfolk say that the owner of the Rublyovka restaurant complex by the Maralik-Gyumri highway, the well-known Yerjo, also owns two apartments in different parts of the neighborhood.

Hetq was informed that another Maralik resident, Anna Hovhannisyan, also with children, separated from her husband and found herself out of a home. She appealed to the mayor to get an apartment in the housing block but was refused.

Write a comment

If you found a typo you can notify us by selecting the text area and pressing CTRL+Enter