IT’S PLANNED TO ALLOCATE 89 MLN DRAMS IN 2006 FOR BUILDING TEMPORARY LODGING FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE

YEREVAN, APRIL 7, NOYAN TAPAN. 89 mln drams (nearly 193.5 thousand
dollars) is to be allocated from state budget for the first time
in 2006 for building temporary lodging for homeless people. Anahit
Gevorgian, Deputy Head of the Department on Problems of Disabled and
Old People of RA Ministry of Labor and Social Issues, reported this
during the April 6 discussion dedicated to the “Problems of Homeless
People.” According to her, homeless people will live in temporary
lodgings for only several months. After a number of detailed
explanations of psychologists, lawyers they will be settled in
different state tutorial institutions. A.Gevorgian mentioned that the
problem emerged in Armenia as a consequence of the new social-political
order established in the recent 15 years. As a result of the large
social polarization many people were deprived of their apartments,
lost their job. According to the data of RA Police, 100 homeless
people are officially registered in Yerevan. But according to Nane
Makuchian, Chairwoman of the “Center for Social Assistance” NGO,
their number in Yerevan reaches 800, 40 of them died in 2005 winter
from frostbite. N.Makuchian said that both state and non-governmental
organizations are engaged in the problems of persons below 16 and
above 60 years old as the latters belong to the able-bodied group
but indeed are deprived of not only job but also tutelage of the
above-mentioned organizations. Representatives of state and non-state
structures invited to the Ararat diocese in order to discuss complete
and all-round settlement of the issue failed to suggest any rational
variant acceptable for everybody for the solution of the problem.