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Living Homeless in the Expectation of the President’s Resolution

April 21, 2008
Nona Suvariani, Tbilisi

The Jabauris family has been requesting the state to provide accommodation to and this unanswered request has for been going on for the last eleven years. Although every three member of the family are unemployed, and the twelve-year-old Tornike needs an urgent operation, the government still cannot give the least amount of hope to the family. 

Kakha Jabauri has been appealing to the various institutions with Tbilisi authorities for eleven years already but to no avail. He is sent from one to another institution and still without result. He has for many years been chasing around this red-tape circle. There is an endless list of appeals but the family remains homeless.

Jabauri started to gather the necessary documents since 2004. He even thought of appealing to the Embassies of various countries if Georgian institutions would fail to assist his family. The documents should have demonstrated how Kakha Jabauri has repeated his demands for help with accommodation.

“I have been submitting my request letters to every institution for eleven years already. I have applied to the district administrations and the President’s Chancellery. I visit the institutions once a week and submit the documents; however the replies to my appeals are always the same.”

“In 2004 I applied to the board of the Gldani-Nadzaladevi District in Tbilisi. I explained the situation facing my family to Niko Khachirashvili, the district governor. We were expecting a baby at time. I urged him to give an accommodation to my family. He said the board did not have similar access to accommodations and that he could not assist us. I checked at the Public Registry and found out that there were vacant flats in Mukhiani district and the district authority could settle us there. I applied to the deputy governor of the district in 2005. I asked him permission to live in the flat of the under-construction building in Mukhiani district. He gave a vague answer trying to explain that Tbilisi City Hall was in charge of the building and not their district board. I then appealed to Gigi Ugulava, the City Mayor, with several petitions. Finally, the city authority also sent me back to the district governor. I appealed to the president’s administration too; I showed them the document withdrawn from the Public Registry which stated that I could settled in the flat. Their reply was “we do not know” anything about this.

Later on, when the awaited transfer of the accommodation almost complete, and the Georgian parliament had even enacted a corresponding law, everything still failed. However, there was only hope, and even with the President’s resolution, all hope was lost when it was also abolished at the last moment. This resolution regulated apportioning of the accommodations to homeless people. The list of people who deserved the accommodation was also canceled. Kakha Jabauri was on the list too. The commission which was in charge to apportion flats was also abolished. Mamuka Akhvlediani, the current Tbilisi Vice-Mayor, has to resigned from the position of the chairperson of the commission; all the property previously run by the commission was put under the charge of the Property Management Department of the City Hall.

“I applied to Giorgi Gelashvili, deputy chairperson of the Department for Property Management of the Tbilisi City Hall. He replied they had blocked the documents of my and five other needy families that have been submitted to the accommodation commission before 2003. Now, the project should be drawn up again and it must be sent to the corresponding institution for yet another time. The documents were supposed to have been prepared from the very beginning. There is some list of people with accommodation problems but it is still uncertain whether their question will be settled or not. I was on the list until 2007 but it was also cancelled. Thus, the same might happen with the new list and we will stay without any hope. The authority has not promised us even to supply with some temporary accommodation until they find a regular place for use to live.”

Lack of accommodation is not the only problem for Jabauris. Little Tornike needs an immediate operation. Although Kakha Jabauri petitioned to all governmental bodies nobody has tried to assist the child.

“The child broke his hand in January. When the doctor saw the x-ray picture he said that he must be immediately operated on and that a bone transplant must be performed. We could not afford for the child to stay in the hospital and decided to appeal to various governmental institutions for help. The officials from the Ministry of Health stated they had halted to fund operations temporarily and it will be renewed after May 25. I am looking forward to that day but currently the child is not being treated. The main problem is that the owner of the flat we are renting will soon kick us out and we will remain in the street with a sick boy. We cannot pay the rent.”

Although Tornike Jabauri is only 11 he too has started to write appeals. He had no more way out. He has been witness how his father tries to get some accommodation for their family for many years. Tornike wrote his first appeal to the President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“Mr. Saakashvili, I study in the fifth form at the Tbilisi Public School # 32. As we live in a rented house we often have problems and have to miss classes. We have to move from one to another flat because we do not have our own house. My parents cannot pay the rent. I miss lessons for another reason-I am ill. The doctor said I have cyst and I need medical treatment. I have often seen my father gloomy because of poor living conditions. Thus, I decided to appeal to you. I beg you to assist us.

“I want to learn well but I do not have all text-books. When my class-mates celebrate their birthdays I cannot join their parties in most cases; I cannot go on field trips too. I cannot even invite their parents to my house. I also want to give a birthday party once and be full of joy. I want to have my own house, my room, my corner. I beg you, Mr. President, help us.

“I had a birthday on March 4 and my parents even could not give me any present and it was an ordinary day for us. I want you to come to our current flat and see how we live.”

Tornike Jabauri

Officials from the Tbilisi City Hall explained that granting accommodations to people has not been an urgent need for a long time already. Tbilisi City Hall has not been building the residential houses for many years.

Zura Gabuinia the head of the Accommodation Department of the Tbilisi City Hall stated that the administration cannot grant even temporary accommodations to people. It is a sub-structure of the City Hall and depends on the president’s resolution.

“The district board grants vacant flats. For example, a person dies and s/he does not leave his/her flat to anybody. In this case the Ministry of Economics takes over the ownership of similar flats. Afterwards, if the Ministry will kindly inform the City Hall about the vacant flat we will petition to them assign that accommodation to us. Only after these procedures the district boards are able to grant people with flats. However, even if similar flats existed, the boards cannot assign the flats to people because of the president’s resolution. Unless a new resolution is passed, the situation will remain unsettled.”

Zura Gabunia said that he has been waiting for the resolution already now for eight to nine months. Thus, the new law enacted by the parliament is useless until the president passes a new resolution.

“Commission working on accommodation issues will be abolished for all practical purposes until the president passes a new resolution. After that, if according to the resolution it will be necessary to establish a commission, it will be established. If not, our department will be in charge of granting flats.”

Kakha Jabauri has visited our office many times. He is fully aware what is going on here. I told him that we should wait for the president’s resolution.”

Nobody knows whether the president will pass similar resolution or not.  Gabunia does not have any indication about it. Thus, it is still obscure how long time the family of Jabauris will have to move from one to another flat with their sick child.

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