In the town of Sergeevka, North Kazakhstan Region, state-built houses constructed about six years ago for resettlers under the "Enbek" program are being demolished. Of the 109 buildings erected, 14 have been declared unsafe after residents abandoned them without supervision, and four have already been dismantled, reports infohub.kz.
The family of Beibit Khalmatov moved to Sergeevka from southern Kazakhstan four years ago. Now their house is the last on a street where people still live—beyond it stand empty buildings. The head of the family says that neighbors who came to Kazakhstan from Iran left without saying goodbye and gave no reasons. In his view, the long northern winter was a severe test for the resettlers.
"In winter you have to prepare, first of all, here. Here, for example, half of it is already winter—six months of winter. You have to prepare. For two months I worked only for the winter, getting ready. For grain, wheat, straw—all that has to be collected if you keep a household. And coal, firewood. The rest comes gradually," says Sergeevka resident Beibit Khalmatov.
Beibit's wife does not hide her satisfaction with the house the family lives in. According to her, it is no different from the one the neighbors abandoned. However, her husband turned out to be a good manager: he raised livestock, made repairs, and learned to stoke the stove so well that all six children walk barefoot at home.
"It's good, convenient, warm in the house. The children walk around in T-shirts. In general, they don't get sick here in the north. The nature is beautiful. The hospital is good, the bazaar and shops are nearby, everything is convenient. And my husband stokes the stove—he's a master at it," says Sergeevka resident Zhanar Sydykova.
Officials claim they monitored the houses but could not return them to the state before they became unsafe. Under the state program, resettlers received housing on a lease basis, had to pay 6,000–8,000 tenge per month, and were considered full owners. They could only take back abandoned houses after a court ruling—or if the owners themselves wrote an official refusal. However, the new settlers were in no hurry to give up their property.
"A person left in winter, left furniture, a certain part of the furniture. Took some things and left silently. We had to break into these houses because there were no residents. We start looking for them—phones are disconnected. Accordingly, we filed lawsuits against them," notes the deputy akim of the Shal akyn district.
The construction of 109 houses for resettlers in Sergeevka cost the state almost 800 million tenge. About 80 of them are currently occupied. Lawsuits have been filed against 40 families who abandoned state housing. The resettlers will have to return everything the state spent, including relocation allowances and moving expenses. But officials admit that many defendants have nothing to take.