Dozens of people who lost their homes in what was Yerevan's worst residential fire in recent memory late last year battled on through the New Year holiday season to get their derailed lives back on track, wondering if they'd ever be given an opportunity to live in their neighborhood again.

Living in rented apartments that became possible due to monthly allocated aid from the mayor's office, many fear they will have the same fate as other downtown residents who were evicted from their houses in the city center during urban redevelopment projects in recent years. 

The explosion of a natural gas container at a private house just off central Mashtots Boulevard on November 24 triggered a large residential fire in which 14 families, 70 people in all, lost their homes. 

It was not until late December that many of those left homeless who had to literally live in the street were given an opportunity to rent apartments for the cold period. 

Yerevan's new mayor Karen Karapetyan, who assumed office only in the second part of December, ordered a monthly payment of 150,000 drams (about $415) to be paid to five such families, living in tents, for the duration of four months.

"The mayor visited us. There was even talk that a multi-apartment residential house could be built here in spring and we would also be provided with housing. But we don't know whether this is true or not," Aghavni Hakobyan, 35, whose four-member family lost a newly repaired home, told ArmeniaNow. 

"We only fear the fate of Buzand Street residents," she added, referring to scores of families evicted from their houses in downtown Yerevan with compensation that couldn't buy them comparable housing in the city center or even in the suburbs. 

Hakobyan's husband, Gevorg Sargsyan, used to work as a driver, but after the fire he could not go to work immediately as all of his clothes had been destroyed in the blaze and the money allocated by the municipality was not enough to buy new clothes immediately. He hopes to be able to go to work later this month. 

"We do not believe that we will be given an apartment. That's why we have taken a loan of $6,000 and are making repairs of what remains of our house so that they cannot remove us from there," says Hakobyan.

Residents of a three-storey house built in 2002 also damaged in the fire are also trying to repair their house by their own forces. This was the only of more than a dozen buildings that was not destroyed beyond repair.

Head of the Department of Construction and Improvement Work at the Yerevan Mayor's Office Frunz Basentsyan told ArmeniaNow that he was still not aware of any specific plan for the site. 

Source: www.armenianow.com