St. Petersburg, three tenants protesting evictions arrested
(Photo: Moy Rayon - newspaper Мой район)
Three tenants, Zinaida Porohkovaya, her son Michael, and Olga Baranova, tenants of the famous house 15/2 in Ilyushina street were arrested as a result of attempt to pitch tents in the front of the Smolny palace . Now they await trial in the Smolninsky district court. The IAI full express the solidarity with the tenants in the framework of the World Zero Evictions Days.
(Photo: Moy Rayon - newspaper Мой район)
Group of Ilyushina street house 15/2 tenants tried to pitch tents in front of the Smolny Palace (the Russian 1917 Revolution headquarters, now City Government main office) protesting evictions As a result, three people were arrested.
The protest action was staged by tenants of the 15/2 house in Ilyushina street, which has been evacuated from 2007. The tenants tried to pitch a tent in the Smolny garden (the Russian 1917 Revolution headquarters, now City Government main office) and were set to stay there until the local city authorities find the final resolution to their strange plight. The action was provoked by the fact that four more families have been evicted from the house recently, according to the information provided by the tenants
(Photo: Moy Rayon - newspaper Мой район)
One of the participants of the protest was a four year old boy who has been denied local registration permit by local authorities for the grounds of his parents having no permanent address. His grandmother, Olga Baranova, was arrested.
Those apprehended by the police were detained in police precinct 76 and stayed there during the entire night until the court ruled a verdict.
By this time, the court has not yet been summoned, and the arrested tenants are still in custody.
(Photo: Moy Rayon - newspaper Мой район)
The background of this story is traced back to the 1990 ies. The house was constructed in 1991, with its most tenants having received their accommodation by the state in 1992.
However, in 1995 the construction company called the ‘’Fourth Trust’’, formerly state owned, privatized the house through some illegal schemes and started gradually to increase the rent payments and then demanded that the tenants buy their apartments from the ‘’Fourth Trust’’ company at market prices.
(Photo: Moy Rayon - newspaper Мой район)
As a result, all the 48 families, who lived in the house, had to face evictions. At least eighteen families have already received court verdicts on eviction and been evicted, and thirty more families have been sued by the ‘’Fourth Trust’’ company demanding that they vacate their apartments.
The City Government is ready to provide the tenants apartments as a compensation but on the conditions of the so called ‘’special rent’’, which is tantamount to temporary housing without the right of ownership. However, most tenants of the Ilyushina house are not content with this status. Under the five year long agreements they are asked to sign they have to prolong them. The tenants fear that they can be evicted from their temporary housing eventually as the applicable Russian laws regulating housing rent do not specify any ‘’special rent’’.