Natural disaster victims gifted new homes

Thirty three Georgian families forced from their homes by natural disasters will receive new homes worth up to 20,000 GEL as a gift from the state.

More than 1,780 environmentally displaced families from all over the country addressed the Government for resettlement, with many coming from Georgia’s mountainous regions of Adjara and Svaneti.

A special commission reviewed each application and rated each family according to special criteria. As a result, 33 families forced from their homes because of a natural disaster or environmental factors were approved for the housing scheme.

First Deputy Minister of Refugees Grigol Giorgadze said the families who were selected were "in the most urgent need of accommodation”.

The families were given 20 days to present which house they wished to live in, which would then be purchased by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees.

The Ministry noted the refugees would not be forced to live in a place they did not want to and would be able to select the area in which they lived.

Giorgadze noted the process of how the houses would be distributed in a transparent way. Representatives of the Public Defender’s Office as well as international and local non-governmental agencies would also participate in the process.

"I think we have to evaluate this process positively because we have put a big effort into each application and at this point, considering the resources we have, decisions were made about the families who were in most urgent need of accommodation,” he said.