Hundreds of Georgian people displaced by conflict and violence who live in collective centres have been gifted apartments in their name for symbolic price of one GEL.
Around 656 refugee families living in sub-standard conditions received apartments in private ownership, Refugees Minister Sozar Subari said today.
More than 10,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who lived in state-owned collective centres across the country will soon be presented with new homes in their name. The collective housing blocks where thousands currently lived were not constructed for long-term accommodation, Subari said.
As well as this initiative, the Ministry said it would look into cases where IDPs lived in privately-owned properties. In this instance the Ministry would possibly buy the properties and gift them back to he IDP at the symbolic one GEL price.
The rehousing project launched on November 1, 2014 and will continue for 10 months. The Ministry of Refugees hired 64 people to evaluate the condition of the collective centres. Those in the worst condition were offered alternative housing.
A 2013 UN survey revealed many collective centres did not meet adequate standards. To get IDPs into adequate housing, the Georgian Government purchased more than 1,500 houses. These will soon be gifted to eligible families in Georgia’s regional areas.
According to the United Nations Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) there were up to 206,600 IDPs registered by in Georgia at the end of 2013.
About 45 percent of IDP’s lived in collective centres – about 70 percent of which do not meet minimum shelter standards, lacked adequate privacy, lacked access to water, proper insulation and functional sewage systems,” stated the Gap analysis of the UN Refugee Agency.