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This year, the municipality of Kőbánya offered two dilapidated, vacant apartments for renovation from floor to ceiling by volunteers of the Street to Apartment Association, with support from the capital.
The Metropolitan Solidarity Fund supported the project with HUF 23.6 million in the last cycle, two of which can be used to renew two district council flats, according to Bálint Misetics, the Mayor’s chief advisor on housing and social policy.
The apartments will be made available to the homeless through a tender. The association will decide on a case-by-case basis, taking into account whether the people moving in have sufficient fixed income to pay the bills.
The ULE also provides a social worker to assist with moving in with the initial administration and to help them find their place in their new environment.
The Gyáli út apartment will be home to 30-year-old Attila and his partner. Attila himself is also helping with the renovation, as he regularly works as a painter and decorator on various construction sites. He was taken from his abusive parents by the social services when he was 6 years old; he ran away from home as a teenager and has been living on the streets ever since. And 12 years ago, he was no longer alone in the elements, having found a life partner.
Together, they experienced addiction, begging and ostracism, and eventually built a heated hut out of door slabs in a bush near Hungária boulevard. Most of all, they are happy that in their new home, they won’t have to heat water from the petrol station on the stove to take a bath.
“We can finally be safe, clean ourselves, keep our jobs better, and integrate even better into the Hungarian state so that we are no longer looked down upon,” Atilla says.
Their example shows that homelessness can only be tackled with shelters and hostels, but it can be solved with an apartment.