YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The participants of the public discussion, convened by a number of public organizations on November 27 at the journalists' club "Asparez", decided to send a message to the authorities of the country till the 19th anniversary of the December 7, 1988 earthquake, with which they will demand to implement capital construction in the earthquake zone and to provide the homeless people with apartments by 2-3-year allocations of the state budget. The message will include suggestions on stimulating the business with tax, customs and bank privileges in the earthquake zone as well as working out prospective state program of development of Shirak. According to data of "Asparez", Anushavan Papikian, the Head of Department of Registration and Distribution of Apartments of the Gyumri Mayor's Office, said during the discussion that 3972 homeless families are registered in the city as of November 27, 2007. According to Albert Margarian, Head of Urban Development Department of the Shirak Regional Administration, due to program of Certificates of Purchasing Apartments (CPA) implemented 4-5 years ago by the Urban Institute and with the funds of the USAID, 4091 homeless families bought apartments in the city of Gyumri, and 4838 families in the whole region. Within the framework of the CPA program implemented with the funds of the 2006 state budget, 240 homeless families or 73% of those registered in the program bought apartments. During 11 months of 2007, 389 families applied to regional administration for using the CPA program, 193 ones out of which have already bought apartments. A. Margarian mentioned that the nominal prices of CPA are reconsidered once every three months according to the data given by the State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre. According to the discussion participants, the funds given by the CPA are always smaller that the market prices of apartments. It comes that the purchaser-homeless people are obliged to add money for buying an apartment, and very often, just the former homeless people who bought apartments, not having enough means for living, sell their apartments, then emigrate or return to cottages. According to A. Margarian, 815 million drams (nearly 2.7 million USD) from the means of the 2008 state budget is envisaged for the CPA program, 100 million drams out of which for the homeless families of Spitak. In the opinion of most of the participants of the discussion, the solution of the problem of providing the homeless people of Gyumri with apartments through the CPA program is not realistic as 10-15 years will be needed for providing 3972 families with apartments with the current rates. It was suggested to end the construction of unfinished buildings remaining still from the USSR times, to involve the means of international grant and the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund.

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