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NUMBER OF HOMELESS IS UNKNOWN
[06:30 pm] 27 December, 2007

Thousand families will meet the New Year in the
streets in 2008. Among such families is Violeta
Grigoryan’s family, who moved to Armenia from
Azerbaijan in 1989.

They lived with relatives when they moved, then they
hired an apartment and were dismissed from the state
program to provide the refugees with shelters. `Yes,
we were registered as refugees, but the state first
provided those families who lived in administrative
buildings. My husband was working then and we were
waiting for our turn’, told Violeta.

Violeta’s husband died this year and her family
appeared in a serious situation. Violeta does not work
and the family lives on the children’s and her
mother’s pension and the relative, who is hosting
them, is going to sell the apartment. `I don’t know
what to do’, says Violeta.

The state allots 815 million drams for providing the
refugees with certificates for buying apartments.
`First the Government provides those who live in
administrative buildings and in wagons, and then
provides those who live with relatives or hire an
apartment. We will solve their problems after solving
the problems of those who live in administrative
buildings’, said Ara Harutyunyan, Head of the Refugee
Section of State Department of Migration of the RA
Ministry of Territorial Administration.

In 2003 the Government counted 3400 families living in
administrative buildings, who were allotted
certificates for buying apartments but only 60 percent
of them managed to buy apartments, other 40 percent
remained without apartments. In the result of rise in
price, certificates were depreciated and many could
not buy apartments, thus again the second group of
homeless refugees have to wait until these people are
provided with shelters. The Government is mainly
engaged in the problems of those who live in
administrative building and is indifferent toward
those who live with relatives or hire apartments. Even
the exact number of homeless refugees is not defined.
`Ekolur’ NGO has made a film `Your pain is my
problem’, telling about Violeta Grigoryan’s family and
about other homeless refugees. The authors of the film
hope that this film will help the refugees’ families.