Solution Planned for Housing Issues of 453 Families

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a consultation during which the progress of registration work carried out in the disaster zone was presented. This was reported by the government press service.

“Today we have gathered to understand the status of the implementation of the instruction given in Gyumri on December 7, 2018. It is related to conducting registrations in the disaster zone, understanding the scope of housing problems, and what obligations the state has. We need to clarify what we mean by the disaster zone at this moment, what the scope is, and what we should do regarding this and in what timeframes,” noted the Prime Minister at the beginning of the consultation.

The Chairman of the State Committee for Urban Development, Vahagn Vermishyan, reported that there are still housing improvement issues for 557 families under the program from 2008-2020. With the 460 million drams allocated in the 2018 budget, 44 families have been provided with housing. In 2019, 560 million drams were allocated under this program, which will address the problems of 60 families. In 2020, a solution is planned for the housing issues of 453 families. Of these, 280 are in Lori, 149 in Shirak, and 24 in Aragatsotn province.

At the same time, Vahagn Vermishyan reported that as a result of the work done, 6,536 shacks have been registered in the disaster zone, which are used as housing. Of these, 3,500 are located in Shirak province, 2,845 in Lori, and 51 in Aragatsotn. It was noted that, according to the Prime Minister's instruction, specific clarifications will be made by June 30, to understand which families residing in those shacks the state has obligations towards.

Subsequently, possibilities and alternatives were discussed regarding the solutions to housing, emergency buildings, and other urban development issues, as well as promoting construction in the disaster zone. The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of freeing Gyumri, Vanadzor, and other settlements from shacks and stated that cities should develop according to urban development plans. The Prime Minister underscored that the government aims to resolve the issues in the disaster zone. At the same time, Nikol Pashinyan instructed the State Committee for Urban Development to present options for solving the issues of emergency buildings, taking into account international experience.