Sochi activists criticize auction of Olympic Houses

From August 11 to September 7, the Department of Property Relations of the Administration of Sochi is accepting applications for the auction of selling residential houses with land plots. Initially, the houses in the neighbourhood Vesyoloe-Psou were built for Olympic resettlers, but later they were put to the auction. Sochi residents in need of new housing believe that the houses intended for resettlement should not be auctioned at high prices.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Sochi Mayoralty (city administration) put on auction 51 houses built near the Olympic Park in the ImeretiValley. Originally, those houses were designed for resettlement of people who lost their homes because of the need for construction of the Olympic facilities.

"They must be given free of charge to those on the waiting list, which in Sochi comprises more than 30,000 persons. However, the lists are abolished; and the people, who had been waiting for benefits from the Olympic Games, and suffered for so many years from construction projects, were left with nothing," Natalia Kalinovskaya, the leader of the territorial public self-government (known as TOS) "Psou", told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent has visited the micro-district and met the people, who inspected the houses prior to apply for the auction.

Oleg and Zhanna Lukyanenko, who read about the auction, were planning to examine, prior to applying, small houses in Voitenko Street in the settlement of Tavricheskiy.

"What we saw just plunged us into shock. Almost completely destroyed houses in the state of emergency, with land plots overgrown with weeds, are put up for sale at exorbitant prices," said Oleg Lukyanenko.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.