In Russia, more than 1.3 million people live in emergency homes. Not everyone will live to see the housewarming.
It is clear that it is not millionaires who live in dilapidated and dilapidated housing, but pensioners and poor citizens. Some have been living in real slums for decades, accompanied by promises from officials to relocate them to homes where at least the floors do not fall through under their feet and bricks do not fall on their heads.
78-year-old Valentina Tarasova from the Pskov region has been waiting for more than half a century for relocation to a new house from an uninhabited building, which has long been recognized as an emergency. A woman has been expecting a housewarming party since 1969! Then she was sixth in line. And now, 55 years later, she is still the sixth in line for resettlement from this, excuse me, building, which was generally recognized as a “warehouse of medicinal raw materials.” Based on the fact that the house according to the documents is not a house at all, and “we do not know what you live there,” officials refuse to give the elderly woman new housing.
And the former kindergarten teacher, 72-year-old Albina Smirnova, from the village of Koblyakovo in the Irkutsk region, who had been waiting for resettlement from an emergency wooden barracks for many years, died this spring without waiting for resettlement. My heart couldn’t stand it. The pensioner lived in an apartment without heating, with rotten walls, sagging floors and sagging ceilings and fought with officials for decades, but could not do anything.
There are thousands of such stories all over Russia! There is a human tragedy behind each one. And now the Ministry of Construction of Russia offers such people to fork out and pay out of their own pocket for the demolition or reconstruction of their homes when relocating from the emergency fund. These are only proposals, but it is highly likely that the document will easily pass all readings in the State Duma and will be adopted. The current federal slum resettlement program is coming to an end this year, and the new rules are just a line in line. But for whom – for ordinary people or for officials?
FORK OUT – AND COLLECT YOUR MANATEES
Until recently, the demolition program of the emergency fund was almost entirely funded by the federal budget. The regions had to pay only a symbolic 3% of the costs. But since 2021, the volume of federal funding, adjusted for inflation, has decreased by a third. Accordingly, the difference must now be paid by local authorities, who, as always, have no money. Regional officials are faced with a choice: to disrupt the implementation of the demolition program or reduce its costs by underestimating the estimated cost of housing and compensation to citizens. It is not difficult to guess what choice will be made.
The owners living in cultural heritage sites, which are recognized as emergency, will be in the most vulnerable position. Such objects cannot be demolished, they must be “reconstructed”, that is, restored. This can only be done by special authorized firms that work at very high prices.
Now, residents of cultural heritage buildings themselves will pay for the restoration of the cultural heritage site (and there are especially many of them in St. Petersburg, the Moscow region, the Leningrad Region and ancient Russian cities). The amount of reconstruction at restoration rates will be comparable to the cost of apartments. It turns out that the tenants, when evicted from such an emergency house, will not receive anything at all. The main option for this category of Russians will be the actual privatization of apartments and eviction from the center to the outskirts, where officials will tell.
If the new rules are adopted, the financial gain for the budget will be up to 25%. And up to 170 billion rubles will be withdrawn from the pockets of unhappy residents.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF?
Most often, the problem can be solved only through the court. To do this, it is necessary to clearly formulate exactly what your rights are infringed on (the tenants agree to settle, but the authorities do not want to recognize the house as an emergency; they give meager monetary compensation for which you cannot buy new housing, or offer housing outside the city, etc.). You will not pity officials either en masse, or even more so alone. Only the court can recognize their actions as illegal and help you.
Do not sign an act on the seizure of real estate, the court considers only such cases when there is no agreement between the municipality and the owner yet.
Yana Polyanskaya
Photo: Adobe Stock
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