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State of the Environment in Riga 2001
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Housing

 What is the general situation with the housing?

Housing construction in Riga has decreased considerably (see Figure 14).The total area of Riga's residential housing stock (see Table 19, Table 25  ) is 16.23 million mē of which 21.4 mē per inhabitant are utilisable. This figure is considerably lower than in other European countries. A big part of the residential housing stock is old and technically inadequate. Ratio of residential buildings in extreme degree of depreciation or emergency state to the total number of residental buildings was 12.5% in 2000 (see Table 25).

Privatisation process of the residential housing stock is going on  (see Figure 16, Figure 17 and Figure 18).

The most common problem related to housing is the inability of residents to pay the rent and utility charges. The Riga City Council includes social care in its annual budget plans partly subsidising also housing, but these subsidies are not enough to cover expenses of all the needy.

In Riga, there are eight social houses (see Figure 19 ) with 630 flats at the moment. The Welfare Department estimates that up to 10-20% of all housing could become social housing until 2004.

A current problem is the provision of housing to lonely pensioners and people with disabilities. Flats in municipal social houses should be granted to those whose main social problems would be solved that way - ability to pay for one's own flat, lifting of threat of litigation and less need for material social assistance of other kinds. By setting up municipal social houses, the city has managed to improve slightly only one of the most acute social problems in the city however, many people remain living in conditions below human dignity.

The living environment has to be improved in almost all districts of the city; nevertheless, the problem is most pressing in high-rise housing areas.

About 480-485 thousand or about 60 % of Riga 's residents live in high-rise housing areas afflicted by problems not only related to the apartment buildings as such, but also the whole surrounding environment.

In among the high-rise buildings, there is much vacant space, which is not maintained properly - greenery is of low quality and badly tended facilities (benches, playgrounds) old and at times broken. For a great part, residents have indifferent or irresponsible attitudes to the state of the buildings and their surroundings.

Another problem afflicting these areas is the deficient thermal insulation of the houses. All the houses were built of similar construction with identical energy consumption specifications. Houses built in the 60s through the 80s are those in the worst condition, producing most energy losses.  The reconstruction of the high-rise apartment buildings will require sizeable investment, which is not available at present either from the state or the municipality, or from the residents.

 

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This page was last updated: 2003.03.31.