The residents of the emergency-repairs status Lori province learned that this year as well the buildings they live in would not be reconstructed, since the government did not allocate money from the state budget.

Though during the discussion of the 2009 state budget plan the Lori Municipality submitted to the government a list of 10 buildings in the province that need emergency reinforcement, the executive branch nevertheless got around this problem again this year.

After reinforcing buildings requiring emergency repair 4 years ago, the government has not undertaken anything else in this direction.

“There is no money in the state budget,” the Head of the Urban Development Department of Lori province Regional Administration Office Valery Antonyan says. “The means from the state budget will be used to address a more serious issue in the province — solving the problems of the people in rural areas who became homeless as a result of the 1988 earthquake.”

As well as in previous years, more than 121 apartment buildings in Lori province will remain dilapidated, while their residents hold to hope.

According to the construction standards in Armenia, there are 4 categories of emergency repair status of the buildings: the 4th means the building needs to be torn down; the 3rd means the building needs reconstruction.

Antonyan says time plays its part by weakening the stability of the building every year. And if suddenly there is an earthquake the building has small chances to remain standing.

121 buildings in Lori province have the 3rd category emergency repair status, and 84 of them are in Vanadzor. (Only one building was given the 4 th category emergency repair status.)

Antonyan points out that a total of about 10 billion drams ($33 million) will be required for their reconstruction; the reinforcement of each square meter costs 120,000-140,000 dram ($396-462).

The state budget does not have such amounts yet. In the past years the amount necessary for the reinforcement of 3 buildings in Vanadzor was allocated by the Lincy Foundation.

The ruined look of the 4-floor apartment building at 28 Grigor Lousavorich Street in Vanadzor is noticeable at a far distance.

The building was constructed in the 1960s according to the so-called Khrushyov plan, (named for Nikita Khrushyov, the leader of USSR in 1954-1963, who initiated the mass residential construction throughout the soviet counties) After the 1988 Spitak earthquake it became an emergency building – the bearing walls are semi-ruined.

The discolored walls and the roof without tiling make living more unbearable when it rains or when the snow begins to melt. The entrance and hallway of the building without doors and windows are not only unsightly, but also dangerous.

14 families are still putting up with the conditions in the building, as they have no alternative of moving elsewhere.

Hamest Hartenyan, 48, and her husband bought a two-room apartment 10 years ago. She recalls that at the time the building was in a better condition, despite being a 3rd category emergency building. As years went by, the condition got worse, particularly because of the careless attitude of the residents.

Antonyan points out that the renovation of the 3rd category apartment buildings is the responsibility of the state, and not of the residents. But since the state has no funding for extensive renovations, the conditions of the building are getting worse from year to year.

The residents do not even take the risk of renovating their apartments – they say it’s pointless to do so.

Hartenyan’s family made some light repairs when they just moved in, but no trace of that remains today.

“What’s the point of renovating, everything is ruined,” the owner of the apartment shows the walls whose plaster has come off, the pitiful state of the bathroom that gets covered with ice in winter, the damp bedroom.

When the rainwater and the melted snow from the broken roof flow down, they flood not only the hallway, but the apartments as well.

“If they could only fix the roof, we don’t need anything else,” Hartenyan requests on behalf of the neighbors as well.

Her 72-year-old neighbor Siranoush Hunanyan agrees.

“Going to bed every night and waking up is like dying,” the elderly resident re-experiences the anxiety she felt when her daughter and grandchild came to visit her. Her guests and her neighbors’ guests are afraid of visiting them, “they are asking how we can live here.”

“I wish someone from abroad could repair our building,” says Hunanyan, who has no more expectations from her own government.