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Being late for moving: is it possible to speed up the resettlement of an emergency house
In Yakutsk, a fire in a wooden apartment building killed three people, including two teenagers aged 11 and 14. Another 20 people were evacuated. The house has long been declared an emergency in 2017, but the residents did not know the timing of the relocation. Izvestia investigated whether people who live in dangerous homes have a chance to receive a new apartment on an emergency basis and what to do with a program that does not keep up with the number of newly identified uninhabitable buildings.
Which house burned down in Yakutsk
The fire that led to the tragedy occurred on Thursday afternoon: a wooden house at 67/3 Khalturina Street caught fire. Two teenagers aged 11 and 14, as well as a man, were killed. The mayor of the city, Evgeny Grigoriev, said that another 20 people had been evacuated.
A criminal case was opened on the fact of the fire under the article on causing death by negligence, the regional Investigative Committee reported. The Prosecutor's Office is also conducting an inspection.
The local media immediately drew attention to the status of this house: back in November 2017, it was declared an emergency. It was built in 1971, and now 24 families are registered there. In total, according to open data, 53 people were resettled under the federal program from there.
Now the victims of the fire will be provided with temporary housing in the maneuver fund.
Why did the resettlement program fail?
It is known that the financing of resettlement from houses recognized as emergency after January 1, 2017, will begin in Yakutia only from 2026 — this was reported by the head of the region Aisen Nikolaev in September. Meanwhile, the neighboring houses were a little more lucky.: they were included in the relocation lists as built earlier. This year, for example, 65 Khalturina Street was resettled, a similar wooden two—story building that was built back in 1962.
Alexander Puzanov, General Director of the Urban Development Institute Foundation, emphasizes that the tragedy that occurred in Yakutsk can only be indirectly related to the emergency status of the house: unfortunately, this also happens in ordinary homes.
"The problem is that accommodation can really be unsafe, and the pace of the solution is unsatisfactory," he told Izvestia.
Svetlana Razvorotneva, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services, notes that Yakutia is one of the "leaders" in the country in terms of the number of housing recognized as emergency. And it was this region that recently submitted to the State Duma a bill proposing to extend the terms of the resettlement program, since not all regions completed one of its stages on time.
— The amount of housing, of course, does not justify the problem of non-fulfillment of the program. Federal money was provided for this in an appropriate manner. In 2024, the relocation of houses deemed to be in disrepair before January 1, 2017 was supposed to be completed. This means that those houses that acquired this status from 2017 to 2022 were supposed to be resettled from 2025," the deputy told Izvestia.
How to speed up relocation from an emergency home
Svetlana Razvorotneva also emphasizes that recognizing a house as an emergency does not mean that it is dangerous and cannot be lived in. However, if the threat of collapse becomes real, local governments can resettle people earlier by declaring a local emergency.
— And then there is always the question of where to relocate. Theoretically, there should be a maneuverable fund for such tasks, but municipalities often simply do not have it or it is in such a state that people refuse to move there. And that's a huge problem," she added.
The expert of the direction "Popular Front. Analytics", General Director of the Rating Agency of the Construction Complex (RASK) Fyodor Vylomov explains that in order to justify the danger of living in an emergency house, it is necessary to record all its damage and the presence of direct threats to living — for example, the condition of load-bearing structures. Then you need to file complaints with the local administration, housing inspectorate and prosecutor's office, to argue your right to priority and adjustment of the program.
"In exceptional cases, lawsuits may be filed against the authorities for non—fulfillment of resettlement obligations, which poses risks to the health and safety of residents," he said.
The Territorial Development Fund told Izvestia that starting in 2022, apartment buildings are subject to relocation as a matter of priority if there is a threat of collapse.
"Such a threat is confirmed by the conclusion of a specialized organization based on the results of an additional examination," the foundation's press service noted. — For its implementation, owners can apply independently to a specialized organization or send an appeal to the state housing supervision authorities, local governments, and the prosecutor's office.
Among other things, the additional initiative of the subjects helps to speed up the work on resettlement, when they allocate funds from their budgets to solve this socially significant task. However, it all comes down to the possibilities of budgets — few people go for it, says Alexander Puzanov.
Are there any alternative ways to relocate
Fyodor Vylomov notes that additional tools have been launched at the federal level, which, in theory, can speed up the resettlement procedure. This is a mechanism for the integrated development of territories (CDT), which can include such houses — they are being demolished, and residents are provided with either payments or new housing.
Alexander Puzanov notes that in this case, residents themselves could find an investor who is interested in building this territory, and then issue an official project for it.
— These are classic redevelopment schemes: a developer buys apartments from the owners, assumes the costs of relocation, and after that uses the site for the construction of new housing or a mixed project. But this is possible only in economically attractive locations — in the center of large cities, near embankments, in areas with good transport accessibility," says Philippe Schrage, co—founder of the Kronung Group. — There, the difference between the cost of land and the future project justifies the cost of resettlement. In all other cases, such projects are simply unprofitable without government support.
Alexey Lukyanchikov, founder of the Element engineering company and a founding member of the NOTECH Association, notes that there are also cases when residents join a cooperative and build new housing on their own.
— Such mechanics also require economic motivation: the site must be valuable to the investor. In small settlements, such options are practically impossible, where the state program remains the main tool," he told Izvestia.
What is the future of the program
Svetlana Razvorotneva notes that neither the new measures nor the program for the relocation of emergency housing at public expense, which has been in force since 2008, have yet allowed for a radical reduction in the number of such houses throughout the country. The emergence of a new emergency housing stock is outpacing the pace of resettlement.
There are many reasons for this, including inadequate, substandard maintenance of houses, imperfect renovation programs, she says.
— I often see houses built in the same year, but in completely different condition. The practice of recognizing houses as emergency shows that everything starts with the smallest details: the roof was not patched before the autumn season for the first time, and the water was not pumped out of the basement for the first time," confirms lawyer Anastasia Mityusova. According to her, timely calls to the management company and a timely complaint will help prevent the house from wearing out.
Alexander Puzanov notes that, in principle, there are no government programs for resettlement from dilapidated housing abroad, and it is simply unprofitable for owners to bring a house to a state of disrepair. Therefore, in his opinion, an economic mechanism should be created that will not allow the emergence of emergency housing at all.
Alexey Lukyanchikov believes that it is important to move from house inspections based on complaints to a planned one, with a record of the condition of structures and a forecast of the safe operation period. Then relocation will no longer be a reaction to a critical situation, but will become a manageable part of the building's life cycle.
"New options and mechanisms for resettlement are also being discussed, including the relocation of citizens to rented houses rather than providing apartments, but so far the bill has not even been submitted to the State Duma,— Svetlana Razvorotneva said.
The Territorial Development Fund also emphasized in a commentary to Izvestia that the resettlement of emergency housing is a unique program in world practice.
— Since 2019, out of 15.2 million square meters. More than 898,000 people moved from the unsuitable housing stock to new apartments. Today, the program continues to be implemented within the framework of the national project "Infrastructure for Life", from 2025 to 2030, it is planned to resettle 345 thousand people from 6.2 million square meters. m of emergency housing," the fund's press service said.
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