9,000 families still have no homes in Armenia's earthquake-hit regions

9,000 families still have no homes in Armenia's earthquake-hit regions
13:32 • 07.12.10
Twenty-two years have passed since the 1988 devastating earthquake in Armenia's northern and north-western regions, but there are still 9,000 families whose housing problems have not yet been solved, the head of Shirak Kentron (Centre) NGO told Tert.am.Out of that number, 6,500-7,000 families alone live in Armenia's second-largest city of Gyumri, Vahan Tumasyan said."On the one hand, it is positive that the state is carrying out a housing program. On the other hand, it should not be regarded as a favor, but rather a duty that has been belated for 20 years," he said. The December 7,1988 earthquake left 20,000 people wounded and 25,000 dead, affecting about 40% of Armenia's northern and north-western area that included four towns – Spitak, Gyumri, Kirovakan (now Vanadzor) and Stepanavan, as well as 342 villages.Tumasyan expressed his discontent with the fact that the government has adopted a decree that does not register any homeless people in the earthquake-hit area since December 2008. This, according to him, means that some of the citizens who left Armenia after the earthquake are finding themselves homeless upon their return to Armenia.About 18,000 flats have been built since 1988 in Gyumri, where also1,056 flats were built under a government-sponsored housing program, implemented in 2009-2010. The construction projects in the earthquake-hit regions are due to be completed by 2012. The projects currently underway in 24 villages in Lori region and in 11 villages in Shirak region will cost an estimated 26 billion drams. A total of 39 billion drams is planned to spend for the construction projects carried out in Gyumri.
Tert.am