22 May 2014, 12:38
People’s deputies, representatives of state executive authorities and local self-government authorities, of the prosecutor’s office and the judicial system, scientists and NGOs, established by dormitory residents, participated in the hearings.
Opening the hearings, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Koshulynskyi claimed that provision of citizens with housing is one of the most pressing problems of the society, adding that Ukraine inherited it from the Soviet Union. In his words, almost two million Ukrainian families and separate citizens required improving housing conditions in 1991. In his words, these figures are statistical and do not reflect reality. “Today, there are almost a million of such families and people. Among this million, approximately 450 thousand are dormitory residents that, in the first place, require improving housing conditions”, stressed R. Koshulynskyi.
Talking about the situation in the country, R. Koshulynskyi stated that it is different and uneven. For example, 13 Kyiv dormitories are in a satisfactory technical condition, 50 – in non-satisfactory. In Donetsk Oblast it is on the contrary: 61 dormitories are in a satisfactory technical condition, 24 – in non-satisfactory, in Odesa Oblast these figures are almost equal – 32 and 36 dormitories respectively.
Ruslan Koshulynskyi also analyzed the situation with dormitories belonging to different forms of property. There are no state owned dormitories in Ternopil Oblast, and there are only 90 such dormitories in Odesa Oblast. 1 dormitory in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast is privately owned, 66 – in Kyiv.
Ruslan Koshulynskyi claimed that the Verkhovna Rada adopted legislative acts aimed at regulating problems, among which laws “On securing implementation of housing rights of dormitory residents”, “On amendments to legislative acts of Ukraine re improving legal regulation of securing implementation of housing rights of dormitory residents”, and “On the national target programme of transferring dormitories into the ownership of local communities for 2012-2015”.
Ruslan Koshulynskyi called participants of the hearings to make suggestions regarding amendments to current legislation that would improve the situation in this sphere.
Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine Andrii Bilousov made a speech. He talked about the process of privatizing accommodations starting from 1992, and claimed that as a result of this citizens who constantly live in dormitories and do not have other accommodations are neglected on the part of the state.
The Deputy Minister also reminded about legislative acts adopted aiming to implement the constitutional right of dormitory residents.
Speaking about the present situation, the speaker informed that a working group on resolving problems of dormitory residents was established at the Ministry.
Summing up, the Deputy Minister expressed belief that joint efforts of all branches of power in settling problems of half a million of citizens living in dormitories will help gradually resolve all of these issues.
First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Construction, Urban Development, Housing and Communal Services and Regional Policy Hennadii Zubko drew attention to absence of a single statistics: the State Property Fund, the Ministry of Regional Development, and the State Department of Statistics provide different figures on the number of dormitories that are state owned, privately or communally owned.
The Committee representative claimed that one of the main problems of the unsatisfactory state of implementing all those measures regarding dormitories is funding that state programme which was established for transferring dormitories from state and private to a communal form of ownership with a possibility for their privatization.
H. Zubko claimed that it is necessary to adopt in 2014 a single bill on amendments to the Law “On securing implementation of housing rights of dormitory residents” and some normative acts.
According to the people’s deputy, local self-government authorities shall create commissions on taking inventory, elaborating and adopting local programmes.
The main task is to complete the transfer of dormitories from state to communal form of ownership which will allow 498 thousand dormitory residents to find their accommodation.
People’s deputy
Dmytro Andriievskyi, representing the Ad Hoc Supervisory Panel of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Privatization, claimed that citizens address the Commission mainly regarding the issue
on privatizing rooms in dormitories that were included to share capitals of
companies created in the process of privatization. He thanked his colleagues
for elaborating a bill on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine (re
improvement of legal regulation of dormitory residents’ housing rights) (Reg.
No. 4879).
The next speaker – Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, academician of the NAS of Ukraine Anatolii Zahorodnii, informed about the situation with dormitories, being maintained by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
First Deputy Chairman of Vinnytsia City Council Volodymyr Kistion informed that there are 130 dormitories of different types of ownership within housing facilities of the city. He noted that “living conditions in dormitories are quite low and the problems are quite standard, i.e. bad sanitary-engineering conditions, etc.”
V.Kistion believes that it is necessary to refine the legislative base. “We are convinced that if there is respective funding on the part of the state, there will be the respective support of bodies of local self-government. Then we will jointly settle this problem,” he noted.
The people’s deputy Valerii Dubil noted that the issue of dormitories is the most acute in Chernihiv Oblast. He told about the activity of a working group established at the Parliamentary Committee on Construction, Urban Development, Housing and Communal Services and Regional Policy on preparation of the bill on amendments to several legislative acts of Ukraine (re refining legal settlement of housing rights of dormitory residents) registered under No. 4879.
V.Dubil stood for accelerating consideration and adoption of the bill in 2014.
Resident of the dormitory in the city of Chernihiv P.Rossol noted in his speech that recommendations to parliamentary hearings “On the state of fulfillment of the laws of Ukraine re securing implementation of housing rights of dormitory residents” that were held in April 2012, were not fulfilled.
P.Rossol voiced out several recommendations to oblast, Kyiv and local state administrations, as well as bodies of local self-government regarding activating work on involving public control over assignment and obtaining of dwelling in dormitories by establishing monitoring councils and standing commissions, etc.
The people’s deputy Ihor Vasiunyk noted that “in view of incompleteness of the Ukrainian legislation, dormitories were privatized along with the people.”
Residents of such dormitories, unlike others, are not protected by the legislation. They cannot privatize their dwelling.
According to I.Vasiunyk, “such people were actually trapped in a modern serf system.”
The MP noted that settlement of key dormitory problems is prevented by incompleteness of provisions of the Law “On Securing Implementation of Housing Rights of Dormitory Residents” No. 500-VI and non-adoption of subordinate acts, stipulated by this law, etc.
Deputy Chairman of the Prosecutor General M.Havryliuk informed that several violations were detected in the course checks carried out by the prosecutor’s bodies, connected with fulfillment of legislation in the course of activity of bodies of local self-government.
Other participants of parliamentary hearings also spoke about the problems in the sphere of securing implementation of housing rights of dormitory residents and made specific suggestions concerning their settlement.
Summing up, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Koshulynskyi noted that in the course of the hearings, the most acute issues were heard. “The key task is to elaborate the proposals made, so that the specializing committee could suggest a jointly elaborated new document,” he summed.
R.Koshulynskyi deems that the specializing ministry should operate as efficiently as possible.
The Presiding noted also the necessity to simplify the procedure of recourse to a court.