Temporary solution to housing problems

The state target program has been operating in Pridnestrovie to provide orphans and children left without parental care with their own housing since 2018. Orphans receive 40-50 apartments or houses every year. As representatives of both the legislative and executive authorities note the queue is moving slowly. The number of those who need their own square meters is increasing from year to year. If at the time of the adoption of the state program there were about 600 orphans in the queue for housing, today there are twice as many of them. The possibilities of the housing stock in the PMR are limited at the same time. It is sometimes not possible to quickly find suitable housing that would correspond to accepted social norms. In order to reduce tension and solve the housing problem of orphans, the PMR Government proposes to temporarily provide them with a room in a hostel. The deputies of the Supreme Council considered the relevant law-in-draft on amendments to the Housing Code at the first plenary session in the spring session.

Some parliamentarians expressed concern during the discussion of the law-in-draft that orphans run the risk of not waiting for their own housing, having received a place in a hostel. However, the authors of the law-in-draft explained that even having received a room in a hostel, orphans retain their right to receive their own apartment or house. They exercise this right as soon as the state administration finds a suitable option in the local housing stock. The initiative of the Government was supported by the Speaker of the Parliament Alexander Korshunov.

The authors of the initiative emphasized that now the law “On additional guarantees for the social protection of orphans and children left without parental care” already contains a norm according to which state administrations must allocate a place in a hostel for orphans and pay monthly monetary compensation for commercial rental of housing if it is not possible to provide them with their own apartment or house. The PMR Housing Code provides however for such opportunities. Therefore, the law-in-draft was developed that would eliminate legal conflicts and oblige the state administrations of towns and districts to temporarily solve the housing problem of orphans by providing them with a room in a hostel.

Deputy of the PMR Supreme Council for Krasnodonsky constituency No. 31 Vadim Levitsky said that there are already several examples in his constituency when an orphan child received a temporary place in a hostel, because the state administrations could not find housing for them that would correspond to all social norms. Local authorities were still able to find suitable living quarters after a while and orphans received keys to their own apartments.

Deputies of the relevant Committee of the Supreme Council conceptually supported the Government initiative. The parliamentarians at the same time agreed with the opinion of their colleagues on the need to finalize the law-in-draft. Representatives of the Government expressed their readiness to work together on amendments to the law-in-draft, if it is adopted in the first reading.

As a result, by a majority vote of the deputies, The law-in-draft on amending the Housing Code of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic was supported in the first reading. Work on it will be continued.