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Eight Member Family Squeezed Into One Dormitory Room

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  • Eight Member Family Squeezed Into One Dormitory Room

    Eight Member Family Squeezed Into One Dormitory Room While 2nd Floor is Empty
    Marine Madatyan

    hetq
    16:10, October 4, 2012

    For the past four years, Ashot and Marieta and their six children have
    been living in a cramped one room in a dormitory in Hrazdan.

    Marieta is expecting another child in a few weeks. She doesn't know
    how they will continue to cope.

    The family's only furniture consists of two beds, which take up most
    of the room, a small table and a TV. When you enter, there's hardly
    any room to move around.

    When I visited, I noticed that there weren't any residents on the
    dorm's second floor. I knocked on all the doors and no one answered.

    Ashot and Marieta say they have filed numerous requests for additional
    space, but to no avail. They've even wrote to President Sargsyan about
    their situation.

    "They answered that we should apply to the Regional Authority
    (Marzpetaran), but we've already done so. They had sent us to the
    Hrazdan Municipality. They promised to help us out but nothing has
    happened," Marieta says.

    What the municipality has done is to send four of the kids to a
    boarding school in Byureghavan.

    Marieta says she misses her children but at least they're now living
    in normal conditions.

    "We visit them when we have enough money for the trip," she tells me.

    The local parish priest sends the family a daily meal, for which the
    family is thankful.

    Ashot, who suffers from epilepsy, says he gets construction work every
    few days and can make about $10 a day. The family's main income is the
    61,000 monthly AMD in child assistance.

    Ashot says that the municipality promised to send someone to check the
    dormitory for empty rooms.

    "So far, no one has come to inspect the place. There are many empty
    rooms here," he says.

    Shota Khachatryan, from the municipality's housing stock department,
    told Hetq that the dorm is private property and that management must
    allocate additional rooms. He also said that there weren't any free
    rooms to allocate.

    When I told him about the empty rooms on the second floor, Khachatryan
    replied that they belong to former company employees who have
    padlocked the rooms and have left the area.

    I then asked if it was possible to unlock one of the empty rooms and
    allocate it to the family.

    "Let them come to my office and we'll discuss the matter. We would
    have to reach an agreement with the owners. They should come with a
    specific number of an empty room. I'll then make a proposal to the
    owners."

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