There are many people in Karabagh that don’t have homes. As if the list of homeless people formed during the Soviet era wasn’t enough, now there are many compatriots who have taken refuge in Azerbaijan and who don’t have a place to call home. Basically, there are many people included in the list. After losing hope that that issue would ever be solved, the majority of the people were able to get a home-someone bought a house all on his own, the other purchased a home with the help of his friends and relatives living in Russia, and so on and so forth. However, many still live in hostels or have rented a place; some have moved to Shushi or different regions of Karabagh.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Karabagh authorities started working on remodeling the homes and buildings ruined during the war and building new buildings and homes at the same time. Of course, they didn’t do all this with only the money provided by the state budget. Armenians living in the Diaspora helped Karabagh construct many houses, apartment buildings, schools and more through their donations. Benefactor Louise Simone Manukyan is pretty well-known in Karabagh thanks to her investments. She sponsored the construction of a multi-story apartment building which was given to the soldiers that died during the Artsakh war, their families and the handicapped. The #7 school in Stepanakert opened up a couple of days ago. The school was also constructed with the help of the benefactor. The government has managed to provide some people with homes through the help of benefactors.
For a couple of years now, there are homes being built for rehabilitation. In 2006, there is a program aimed towards constructing homes for refugees. Some apartment buildings have been built in Stepanakert, particularly in the heart of Stepanakert. Many people think that the prices of the apartments are not affordable. But people can buy those apartments and pay the money later. Young people also have problems finding homes and that is the main reason why they don’t get married. If they do get married, they are forced to live on rent for many years. 28 year-old Arthur Avetisyan, who lives in Stepanakert, says that since he doesn’t have a home, he will not be getting married anytime soon, although he has had a girlfriend for two years now.
“They say that they are going to provide hypothetic credit. I don’t know whether or not we can apply for that. If not, then I think that it will be even more difficult for me to get a home later because after all, it is not easy to purchase a home, especially since prices go up every day,” says Arthur.
Karabagh will get a 200 million dram hypothetic credit, which is not enough to solve the communal problems in the republic.
The Stepanakert municipality worked on solving communal problems in 2005, but it didn’t build homes or provide some citizens with homes; the municipality provided 219 lands out of the 400 for building homes. Eighty five lands were provided to the people that have the privilege to build a home in the new Aresh neighborhood in the capital city of Karabagh. The people that have been waiting for homes since the 1970s are included in this list. According to the mayor of Stepanakert, the lands have been given to the citizens for construction for the first time ever.