In Kazakhstan, during the COVID-19 pandemic, forced evictions became more frequent, due to the reasons of housing seizures for state needs, mortgage debts, domestic violence, etc.
“You Are Hobos – No One Asks Your Permission”
Nur-Sultan resident Lyubov Atamanyuk faced forced eviction in 2017. In 2020, her situation aggravated due to the coronavirus.
“Without warning us, without our permission, they began construction of two branch lines of the railway. We were outraged. One of the foremen told us, “You are hobos – no one asks your permission”. In addition to humiliation and insults, we faced other problems due to the railway construction,” tells a capital resident.
Due to the railway construction, the irrigation system was disrupted, which previously prevented groundwater flooding. Photo by L. Atamanyuk
Together with her neighbours, she filed a complaint with attached photos on the akimat’s website, but no one replied. Lyubov Atamanyuk notes that due to the construction, the irrigation system was disrupted, which previously prevented groundwater flooding. The authorities covered it up completely and moved it closer to the houses. Now, the houses are flooded in the spring when the snow melts and during the rains in summer and autumn. The residents had to purchase pumps to dry their homes.
To construct new railway tracks, akimat bought the land plots and paid compensation to the residents of the houses. However, Atamanyuk family could afford only a two-room apartment with an area of 48 square meters with this money. In addition to Lyubov and her husband, their daughter with husband lived in this house and son with his family in the next house.
“Is it even possible for three families to live in 48 square meters? The daughter and her husband live in the apartment we bought, the son rents an apartment, and we still live in that old house. When the pandemic ends, we will become homeless. It turns out that after the demolition, two families will become homeless. The neighbours – 2 0r 3 families – have the same problem,” says Atamanyuk.
Housing Crisis
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, notes that the pre-existing housing crisis and the economic downturn that followed the outbreak of the pandemic threaten to turn a public health emergency into a housing emergency of global dimensions.
According to official data, in 2020, about 3.44 trillion tenge ($8.072 billion) were allocated from the state budget for social payments for more than 4 million people. This money was used to pay solidarity pensions, basic public pension, basic disability benefits, etc.
Starting from April 1, 2020, the housing and public utilities fees of natural monopolies holders were reduced for the quarantine and emergency period. In addition, 76.7 billion tenge ($180.25 million) were provided for the payment of targeted social assistance.
However, the state did not take any measures regarding the housing crisis and forced evictions.
This year, the Fund for Development of Parliamentarism in Kazakhstan conducted research on forced evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and prepared a draft government decree “On measures to support certain categories of citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the period of restrictive measures, including quarantine”.
In addition, the Fund also published a petition in support of a moratorium on forced evictions. If the petition receives 1000 signatures, it will be sent to the government.
Increase in Forced Evictions
The residents of Vesovaya and Zhezkazgan villages of the Karaganda region are being evicted during the past several years. The local akimat is evicting families without providing equivalent compensation in order to transfer the land with copper deposits to Kazakhmys Corporation. In March 2021, the houses were cut off from electricity, heating, water, and communications. People are scared to leave their homes for fear of arson or demolition.
According to Alisher Kozhagulov, leading expert of the Fund for Development of Parliamentarism in Kazakhstan, in 2020, the tenants were evicted most often. Among the reasons, he names the loss of earnings during the pandemic, the inability to pay rent, lack of contractual relationships when property owners needed more rooms and no longer needed tenants.
The results of research by the Fund for Development of Parliamentarism in Kazakhstan show that the process of forced evictions in the country took place during the pandemic. Not only tenants were evicted, but also those who lived in their own houses/apartments. The largest number of such evictions (53%) was recorded during the quarantine period in 2020, according to the respondents. Before quarantine, this figure was 34%.
The main reasons for forced evictions of people from their own homes were problems associated with the mortgage debts (51%) and seizure of property for state needs (38%).
“In addition, the rent payments increased sharply, and the landlords explained this by the fact that they also lost income and needed money. In many cases, people could not afford other housing, so they were forced to turn to relatives and friends for help,” Kozhagulov notes.
Before quarantine, the main reason for forced eviction was the legal foreclosure of property by the state (demolition, seizure, eviction from dilapidated housing).
The member of the lower house of Parliament Irina Smirnova also notes the increase in forced evictions.
According to her, the foreclosure of land for state needs often occurs when the proposed payments do not correspond to the cost of housing. In case of mortgage debts, the bank does not wait, does not share the risks with the borrower, and does not consider force majeure circumstances. By a court decision, minor children and children with disabilities are evicted together with their families.
“The reasons for forced evictions can be different,” stressed Smirnova, speaking at the plenary session. “The outcome is the same: such citizens increase the number of homeless people!”
Rejection of Moratorium
On June 2, 2021, the People’s Party of Kazakhstan demanded a moratorium on forced evictions of citizens from their only housing, at least during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this parliamentary request, the Party’s faction addressed Deputy Prime Minister Yeraly Tugzhanov.
The government did not support the introduction of a moratorium on forced evictions in Kazakhstan. Deputy Prime Minister Yeraly Tugzhanov responded to this request, “Not supported”.
“Considering the ongoing mass vaccination of the population, the epidemiological situation in the country will improve, and the quarantine restrictions will be lifted. In this regard, the proposal to introduce a moratorium on the forced eviction is not supported,” said Deputy Prime Minister Yeraly Tugzhanov, responding to the request from Mazhilis members.
It is difficult to assess the impact of the pandemic on the right to adequate housing in Kazakhstan. There is no data in the country showing the impact in terms of gender, ethnicity, or other characteristics. There is also no evidence of how the economic crisis that has followed the pandemic affected housing affordability, property rights protection, access to services, or other indicators that can track the realisation of the right to adequate housing.
Balakrishnan Rajagopal, in his report on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, states that the lack of such data has been a major impediment to assessing the impact of the crisis and what needs to be done, and by whom, in response.
“Data collection and analysis should be participatory and include data disaggregated by age, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, and other characteristics that would make it possible to understand better how housing status, housing quality and overcrowding contribute to COVID-19 transmission or mortality rates,” Rajagopal notes.
International Experience
According to the report on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, as well as the right to non-discrimination, countries around the world have responded to the crisis in different ways. For example, in Colombia, the government prohibited the eviction of tenant families and ordered a freeze on rent increases during the period of public emergency. Evictions ordered before the state of emergency are suspended, and more than 300,000 families have been granted financial relief for home loans.
In Spain, the judiciary ordered the postponement of all non-urgent judicial activities nationwide, including evictions. Under legislation passed on 17 March, a moratorium on mortgage payments and a suspension of evictions for tenants in vulnerable situations left without alternative housing were guaranteed.
In the United States of America, the Federal Government issued a temporary eviction and foreclosure moratorium through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. The provision was supplemented by a patchwork of local and state-level bans on evictions and measures to protect renters’ rights.