PM: People left without their homes in earthquake will have appropriate accommodation

The State Assets Ministry will on Tuesday invite applications  for grants to cover the cost of rent for people whose homes were made unlivable by the March 22 earthquake in Zagreb, and PM Andrej Plenkovic said he guaranteed all people left without a roof over their heads would have appropriate accommodation.

The tender, to be published also in daily newspapers, is based on the government's decision of last week to cover the cost of rent for residents of the city of Zagreb and Zagreb and Krapina-Zagorje counties who own houses or flats or are protected lessees and who at the time of the earthquake lived in properties that have been assessed as unfit to live in.

They are all invited to submit their applications to the State Assets Ministry within the next 60 days, Plenkovic told a news conference in Government House.

The tender also refers to potential renters who are invited to express their interest with the ministry to rent their flats.

Plenkovic said one of the criteria of the tender was that the average price of rent in Zagreb is HRK 70 per square metre.

Noting that applications would be processed under fast-track procedure, Plenkovic recalled that around 1,000 buildings in Zagreb had been assessed as unlivable, around 4,000 as temporarily unlivable and 14,500 as livable but partly damaged.

There are about 500 more damaged or temporarily unlivable buildings in Krapina-Zagorje and Zagreb counties, mostly family houses, he said.

He recalled that his government had decided to allocate HRK 141 million as emergency aid for residents whose property was damaged in the quake, noting that the government was also covering the cost of temporary accommodation in Zagreb's Cvjetno Naselje student dormitory for people whose property was unlivable.

PM says all people made homeless by quake will have a roof over their heads

PM Plenkovic said he could guarantee that all people whose homes were made unlivable by the quake would have a roof over their heads and normal living conditions despite the fact that a law on the post-quake reconstruction of Zagreb had not been adopted, having been put to consultation last Friday.

He said that the damage caused by the Zagreb earthquake could amount to a maximum 13 billion euros, depending on the quality of reconstruction work. For the sake of comparison, he said that the entire financial envelope for Croatia as an EU member amounted to €10.7 billion.

He noted that there was no reason why citizens, if they had the means, could not start repairing their property on their own, without waiting for the law to be adopted.

Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Marko Pavic said that Croatia would soon apply for funding from the EU Solidarity Fund as soon as the appraisal of damage was completed, the deadline for the submission of the application being June 14.

"We can expect a maximum 6% of the appraised damage, and of that amount we can get a quarter as an advance payment within six weeks from sending the application, in the maximum amount of €100 million," he said.

Also today, the Zagreb city authorities decided that Zagreb residents whose homes had been made unlivable by the quake would be exempt from the payment of local rates until their property was restored to its original state.

Text: Hina

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