“Two-room” apartment, where you have to sleep in the kitchen. The family is unpleasantly surprised by service apartments for people in wheelchairs / Article / LSM.lv

The Housing Department of the Riga City Council has actively started offering service apartments in a newly built house in Bolderāja, Mežrozīšu Street. They are for people in wheelchairs and their carers. However, a family has discovered that the two-room apartment mentioned in the offer means, in the opinion of the municipality, that one or more people have to sleep in the kitchen.

Jūlija Narbuta was a talented teacher and very musical. This is now her eight-year-old son – she goes to music school, blows the saxophone and studies brilliantly. Multiple sclerosis has changed his mother in recent years. Julia no longer speaks, she is fed by probe and one can be left for 15 minutes, no longer. Julia is again an infant and is cared for by her mother. The family has been waiting for a bigger apartment for 7 years. Finally received a letter – a two-room apartment in the new service apartment house at 43 Mežrozīšu Street, in Bolderāja – 34.7 square meters.

It turns out that the two-room apartment mentioned in the letter is actually two rooms. One of them also has a kitchen.

“Our current apartment is bigger than this, and this is given to us as bigger. We still have a child! He needs his own room. Daughter’s own! But it is written – two-room! ” tells Julia’s mother and caregiver Lidija Dashkova.

There is practically no space for furniture. July should regularly suck up the mucus that has accumulated in the throat. She’s tired and bubbling. Mom’s sleep is fragile. Now there are two options – give the boy his room and sleep in the kitchen. Or otherwise.

“They have decided that we can live in the kitchen! I’m already sleeping on the couch with him, because we are sleeping in the same room as a threesome. Pulling out the chair where the boy is sleeping, I am no longer out of the room. It is normal?” asks Lidija Dashkova.

Representatives of the association of the disabled and their friends “Apeirons” and the association “June” come to visit the apartment. There are things they praise. And – what a profit.

The building has one-room and two-room apartments. The studio apartment will have a kitchen area right next to the bed.

“Beautiful, nice, wonderful accessible building from the requirements of the environment, but again the way he is arranged, how many square meters are allocated for the apartment, and whether we can really consider a two-room apartment as a two-room apartment – these are the questions that appear already in operation , about which we warned in advance, ”points out the head of the association of disabled people and their friends“ Apeirons ”Ivars Balodis.

According to the Apeirons association, each person in a wheelchair should live in twice the area. It takes at least 43 square meters, as space is needed to move around. Their opinion in designing these apartments was asked once.

“You can’t just automatically assign 19 square meters to a person in a wheelchair, dress him up and bake meatballs while lying in bed,” emphasizes Balodis.

The neighborhood is what it is. Large parking lot near the house, but no path to the nearest shop. Just a walk. If Jūlija’s family lived here, her son would have to go to Pļavnieki every morning – to school and music school. It is not possible to choose an area at all. Square meters also.

“It’s not about square meters! It’s just about the rooms! We don’t have a fixed number of square meters per person! ” emphasizes Inga Gulbe, a representative of the Housing and Environment Department of the Riga City Council.

The responsible Department of Housing and Environment of the Riga City Council explains that the apartments are offered by a computer system.

A family of 2-3 people will always be offered a two-room apartment. In the opinion of the Riga City Council, this is also the case.

“These apartments here can be classified as two-room apartments, where one room is equipped with a kitchen area,” says Gulbe.

Service apartments will never be large, as their main function is to help people who are struggling with living space. Most of the rent is covered by the municipality. The tenant must pay six cents a month per square meter. The City Council agrees that the apartment is really too small for Julia’s family. The family may refuse.

However, the rules allow only three offers to be rejected. Then the place in the queue loses.

This is the second offer for July. The third apartment promises bigger, but not new.

After visiting the apartment, Julia’s mother is absolutely convinced that she will say no to this offer. There is another possibility – the last.

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