Public Defender: social housing in Gori, Ozurgeti, Kutaisi fails to meet “even minimal” standards of right to adequate housing

Social housing accommodations in the central Georgian town of Gori and western municipalities of Ozurgeti and Kutaisi fail to meet “even minimal” standards to ensure the right to adequate housing to citizens, the Georgian Public Defender has said.

The assessment comes after the monitoring group of the Public Defender’s Office inspected the facilities provided by local self-government structures. 

Photo: Gori social housing/Public Defender of Georgia

Public Defender Nino Lomjaria said on Tuesday she had urged local authorities in all three locations to “immediately resettle” beneficiaries residing in the facilities and provide them with alternative accommodation, adding none of the municipalities had taken her request into account.

The monitoring group observed “particularly severe” living conditions for 80 individuals living in facilities of a former Narcology Centre in Gori, noting absence of sewage and drainage systems, individual bathrooms and kitchens in the building, along with a lack of access to clean water for the beneficiaries.

Photo: Ozurgeti social housing/The Public Defender of Georgia

Fifty families residing in Ozurgeti social housing building “often get sick” due to the lack of drainage system, the report said, adding the air in the accommodation was “polluted” as a result of “high level of humidity” and the building had no access to the main road, and no recreation spaces for children.

Up to 90 families in Kutaisi social housing are having to live in “constant noise” due to the absence of private spaces in the facility, with overcrowding and air pollution due to the lack of drainage system posing issues, the group also noted.

Photo: Kutaisi social housing/The Public Defender of Georgia

Noting the results of the report, the Public Defender has called on the city halls of Gori, Ozurgeti and Kutaisi to ensure the right to proper housing of the homeless and socially vulnerable families and to provide them with alternative accommodation “appropriate for human dignity”.