How Deputies Solve Their Housing Issue

One can imitate work in “house” in order to live in a private apartment in Minsk.

We have always been told that the “house” deputies are not solving their housing issues. That is why, they say, the nonresident deputies live in rented official apartments which they have to leave after their term of office expires. It turns out, we have always been told half-truths.

The “deputy” of the two convocations from Brest Larysa Bahdanovich made a sudden confession. This time she wasn’t running for the “house of representatives” and gave a “sweet and nice” interview to the newspaper “Evening Brest”.

– During the last convocation, I, like all the other “deputies” from other towns lived in an apartment in Kazarmeny Lane, – Larysa Bahdanovich told. – That was a rental apartment and the “deputies” pay a rent for living there. I had a one-bedroom studio apartment. Nothing special: a standard set of furniture, a refrigerator, a stove. Linens, forks and spoons – all those things I brought myself.

The building in Kazarmeny Lane has long been known as a “deputy” housing. The leader of the “deputy” group “Respublika” (“Republic”) general Valery Fralou, lived there once, and a hunger strike demanding to change the Electoral Code was held exactly in his apartment. And here we have something new about the housing issue of the “deputies”.

– We are granted a residence permit in Minsk for the period of work in the “parliament”, so we have the right to build a housing, – Larysa Bahdanovich said. – I used that opportunity and since 2012 I have been living in my own apartment in the most “socially oriented” part of the capital – the residential neighborhood Kamennaya Horka. I built the apartment on loan for 20 years, which I am paying now. I had no privileges and I was building the apartment on the general basis, the interest rate was 14.5% then. That was an unaffordable, as I then thought, sum. I and my family are often coming to Minsk. Surely, we will use the apartment for living.

Let us remind that not every Minsker has the right to build a housing at a relatively low cost. And not every citizen of Minsk, who often go to Brest for some reasons, can buy an apartment in Brest. Well, they can buy an apartment anywhere they want, but at a commercial price. But only those in need, with a lower income can buy an apartment at a low cost in the “social” district.

So how does it happen that the deputies from other towns, who already own apartments in their home towns, suddenly find themselves in the category of those “in need of better housing conditions” in Minsk?

As the lawyers have explained to Belaruski Partyzan, there is a tricky paragraph in our legislation, according to which “the citizens, living in residential accommodation of commercial use on the basis of the employment agreement concluded for a period of duration of labor (service) relations, can require to be registered as those in need of better housing conditions”. The “deputies” use this paragraph to their advantage. They cancel their registration in their home towns, get the residence permit in Minsk, the term of their service is four years. Voila, you're a homeless poor person! And after you have surrendered your mandate, you are a citizen of Minsk.