'Unroofed' destinies... (video)
The five-member family of Yerevan citizen Karine Hovsepyan has been living on the 8th floor of an apartment building located at 48 Nazarbekyan for nine years now. The building does not have lifts, and it has become a real ordeal for the woman to ascend the stairs to get to her apartment. “I climb [the stairs] on all fours, if the child happens to be with me. I am disabled and have problems with one of my legs. My husband is completely blind in one eye, and can see only 50 percent with the other eye. Even if you force me, I cannot raise the child, because I have a hernia,” says Mrs. Karine. 
The husbands do not hope they will receive help in hospitals. They are not welcome guests there. After several visits, they stopped attending hospital. “Though they say that I have a disability and everything is free of charge, you know the laws of this country; one can never receive anything for free. We do not go to doctors because we think we can buy bread for our children with the money which we spend on transport fares. We calculate every penny,” Mr. Karine said. The five-member family cannot even afford daily bread. Mrs. Anahit, the eldest member of the family, has shouldered the care of children in order to help the disabled couple in their daily chores. Mrs. Anahit has not been working for a long time because of a hand injury. "I wake up every morning, look at my children and think what I can cook for them to eat,” says Karine’s mother-in-law. The family has been living in deplorable housing conditions for ten years. At first, they lived on the 2nd floor, but the apartment was given to someone else, and the family appeared in the street. After staying without a shelter for many months, they were offered a flat on the 8th floor of the same building. Mrs. Anahit showed us around the apartment. “It is already autumn, but we do not know what we can do about these broken slates. It rained once, and the area is still wet. We cannot sleep under the sounds at night. It seems as if we are in a music school. All metals are moving and creaking, the panels on the roof are very weak,” she said. 
Mrs. Anahit has written a letter to Serzh Sargsyan, but a reply came from the Presidential Palace advising the woman to turn to the district council. The latter did not help the family either. They asked a weird question instead. “If you could not feed your family, why did you have children? I gave birth to a future soldier, a future mother, had healthy children who fall ill in turn. Our government and our authorities know about our family, but I receive help only from ordinary people like me,” Mrs. Anahit says. 
The building is mainly inhabited with poor families. Melanya Kurghinyan, 53, lives on the 9th floor of the same building. Until recently, she lived in a trailer with her daughter and three grandchildren. “I only want to have my own flat. My children are growing up and they are ashamed of our living conditions. They are ashamed when we have guests but we cannot afford to repair this flat,” she says. 
Although the woman has four more children, she does not expect any help from them. “One of them lives in a rented flat and cannot event afford to pay the rent… I do not know what to say,” she says. Each and every corner of the building smells of poverty. Haykuhi Smbatyan lives in a small area, which cannot be called a flat. The 31-year-old woman lives in these terrible conditions with her two-year-old son, Emanuel. She received the flat from her father but only part of the area is fit for dwelling. “I came to live here after I got a divorce from my husband. This was my family home before I married. When I came here, there were no windows and doors. Only the walls were standing. I decided to put doors and windows and make a small room for us,” says Haykuhi. 
She had to bring up her newborn baby alone, overcoming all difficulties on her way. “I walked on the ice in winter to get to my workplace. I worked in a pastry workshop. After the child was born, I took him to pastry workshop where I worked the night shift. I had no husband, brother or father who would fetch me the necessary supplies,” she says. Haykuhi has always felt the absence of relatives. She had to take the boy to a communal kitchen because she could not afford to feed him properly. “Since he was four months old, Emanuel grew up eating meals meant for grandparents. I could not even have those meals… When my son developed bronchiolitis, I had to give up work. My relatives cannot help us, because they can hardly make both ends meet," she says. 
Haykuhi does not even dream of moving to a rented or a newly renovated apartment. She can only buy food and medicine for her son with the money she receives. She says Emanuel developed illnesses because of their living conditions. “Bronchiolitis will last until Emanuel becomes seven. He cannot live in these conditions, in dust and smoke. Winter here is tantamount to living in the street," says the mother. Unlike his peers, little Emanuel does not play in beautiful playgrounds of the Armenian capital. He spends his days in this small room on a green blanket. 
Haykuhi's room overlooks a district with many splendid mansions in it. She calls it 'a district of well-off people.' Whenever she wants to forget the bitter reality, she goes to the window and looks out. “There are people who want to stay alone… I am always alone… I do not believe in miracles. Why should I? If the relevant authorities have failed to tackle the issue for many years, what can help us?" she says. The building located at 48 Nazarbekyan is known in Yerevan for its poor living conditions and desperate inhabitants. The construction of the building started in the Soviet times but the last floor and the roof were left unfinished.
