{"id":515,"date":"2010-07-05T11:01:24","date_gmt":"2010-07-05T11:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haysanta.am\/?p=515"},"modified":"2018-07-05T11:02:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T11:02:04","slug":"tiny-home-big-problems-where-can-i-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haysanta.am\/en\/tiny-home-big-problems-where-can-i-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiny Home, Big Problems: \u201cWhere can I go . . . ?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ruzanna Amiraghyan
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\u201cThe district militia officer of ours, God bless him, he brought us here saying \u2018Do something if you can.\u2019 So did I. There was a huge pile of garbage here, a pesthole for cholera. So all of us together with my children, we worked and brought the place to an order. We bought this little shelter and brought it here,\u201d says Anush Manukyan, a resident of the Shengavit community in Yerevan, who lives with her three children \u2013 a son and two daughters, and her daughters\u2019 three children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to collect empty bottles, sell liquid bleach. I somehow managed to buy this [temporary house] and gathered my children under one roof,\u201d Anush recalls.<\/p>\n

This 48-year-old woman, who shoulders the burden of her family bought the shelter eight years ago. The family cleaned the piece of land by hand, taking away garbage and stones. Modest as it is, it is an improvement over their previous \u201cresidence\u201d \u2013 in a cemetery in Karmir Blur (near Yerevan).<\/p>\n

\u201cAn acquaintance of mine, one of the neighbors, he said there was a place there, and took us to that place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to rent an apartment, but were thrown out, when we failed to pay the rent. So, we were left in the street. We then lived in the cemetery. We had no home, no conditions. Scared of scorpions, I used to sit up the nights embracing the kids, before the dawn\u2026 we couldn\u2019t sleep, even if we wanted. There were concrete panels above our heads. It used to be a dismantled electric substation, when we moved into it. And there were graves all around,\u201d Anush says.<\/p>\n

The Manukyans found them self facing hardship 14 years go, when Anush\u2019s in-laws threw her out of her husband\u2019s home. Three underage children went into the streets with Anush, all with serious hereditary health problems.<\/p>\n

Anush\u2019s children Armen, 30 and Armine, 26 took after their father. The illness, fortunately, has spared Anush\u2019s youngest, Lilit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son can\u2019t do anything. He is unable to work. He was beaten in the army on his kidneys. He had escaped, faced trial, but still can\u2019t have his urinary bladder treated. He is 30, but suffers incontinence. I can neither take him to hospital, nor help in any way,\u201d Anush continues.<\/p>\n

Due to changes in her former husband\u2019s family after the divorce Anush and her children lost their official registration of residence.<\/p>\n

However, returning from the army, Armen, got his military card from the district he used to be registered at, which, Anush says, means, Armen\u2019s name was not removed from the registration list, although not restored in the list of civilians. Armen has so far been unable even to get his passport.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can\u2019t demand a place to live because he has no passport; they don\u2019t give a document he is registered there, because his name was removed in the passport department,\u201d explains Anush.<\/p>\n

Several years ago Anush\u2019s daughters got married. But, as the mother says: \u201cNone were lucky enough. None of the husbands had the quality\u2026 They now have children \u2013 one, and two. They now face the hardships I faced. It\u2019s the same story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lilit, Anush\u2019s younger daughter, has twice been married, and has divorced in both cases. Two of her sons \u2013 Vahram, 6 and Narek, 3, born from each marriage, are under full care of their mother. Lilit\u2019s monthly income, however, is the social allowance in 20,000 drams (about $65), and the 3,000 dram (about $10) daily for the work at a sauna in the neighborhood, which can hardly suffice a lonely mother to provide two underage children with the least necessities, especially with the recent increase in prices taken into account. And the kindergarten Lilit takes her elder to costs 8,400 drams ($27.50) a month.<\/p>\n

The boy is of school age, but the mother and the grandmother decided to leave him in the kindergarten for another year. They say there have been two reasons for this: one, lack of means to buy clothes, shoes, and stationery and get ready for the school, and second, Vahram lags somewhat behind his peers in his development and is not ready to go to school yet. The child demands special attention and treatment before going to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren are deprived of any kind of good. They want clothes, they want to have a father\u2026 I am capable of neither motherhood, nor fatherhood\u2026 I am a semi-person,\u201d says Lilit, who gets no help from the children\u2019s fathers.<\/p>\n

Lilit\u2019s sister, Armine\u2019s family situation became so bad, she spent 18 months in psychiatric hospital, turning the duties of motherhood over to Lilit.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe used to feed both Narek and her daughter, both at a time. It was Lilit who took care of the child, when it got ill. We have been bearing it all on our shoulders. She hasn\u2019t even known about it. She used to run away and get lost\u2026\u201d Anush says.<\/p>\n

After checking out from the hospital, Armine\u2019s condition somewhat stabilized, but the mother still gets medicines from the hospital once in two months for Armine. And frequently, Armine appears to be unable to take care of her child, because of fits of anger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember this kind of sick people used to get apartments to live separately. This kind of people need to be separated, need to get a home,\u201d says the mother.<\/p>\n

Recently a large hemorrhage has appeared beneath Armine\u2019s ribs, in the left side of her belly. The mother has taken the daughter to specialists, who, having recommended an immediate surgical intervention, have demanded 160,000 drams (about $525) for the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no means to have the operation done. I told I have no money, how can I pay for it? Sometimes when it bothers her I promise her to take to the doctor. But how can ?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lilit has appealed to proper bodies trying to somehow solve her sons\u2019 and also her whole family\u2019s housing problem, but has received negative answer, so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have appealed to all the proper agencies, the district administration, to have them give my children apartments. I sent the appeal three months ago; they gave me a paper saying they can\u2019t give me an apartment. They are boys, how long can I keep them in this place?! It\u2019s a domik, (the Russian word for \u201chut\u201d). I keep both of them pressing to my bosom when they sleep, because of the cold. I have no bedding, I get wool from here and there to make blankets to keep my children warm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is horrific. Look at the torn wall paper, everything is broken inside! The water pours down on our heads when it rains,\u201d Lilit continues pointing to the \u2018home utilities\u2019.<\/p>\n

Environment is just another issue here in this isolated location in one of the industrial districts of Yerevan, besides the lack of utility conditions. Dust of the asphalt plant in the neighborhood have already created problems to Lilit\u2019s youngest son Narek, who has got troubles with respiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take children to hospital regularly, every week\u2026 Narek coughs; they say it\u2019s all the asphalt dust in his lungs,\u201d says Lilit.<\/p>\n

Anush also says despite their registration at Shirak 45 her family may once again appear in the street, because the land lot their house stands on is not privatized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not belong to us. If they take this away we will go back to the life we used to have. I\u2019ll find another power substation or a place to put the domik\u2026 Where can I go to be able to live? It\u2019s impossible. I can\u2019t fasten it to my back and go. I will have to sell then this wood [the wooden panels the house is made of], gather my children and get somewhere else again.\u201d”<\/p>\n