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This is the Second Vacant Buildings March.
We've looked up areas with a lot of vacant apartments,
primarily owned by the local government,
and we planned the route.
It was a loud, noisy march.
What we want to achieve is
what we put forward during our five stops.
There are opportunities that the state is missing.
These opportunities are not taken by either the local government,
the national government, or the owner,
and not really even by those in need.
Where we stopped now is Magdolna street 10/B.
Both buildings contain vacant apartment
that have been walled up by the local government.
Old, dilapidated buildings are not worth renovating or patching up.
Let's demolish them and replacethem with new ones.
Renovation is cheaper than demolition and construction.
A good example is the program of the Social Reconstruction Camp
where tenants are involved in renovating dilapidated buildings,
and their work is then calculated towards the rent.
But it's legal for these flats to be vacant, isn't it?
Yes, it's legal, but they're often empty for years
until demolition or renovation is started.
For this period of time, temporary rental contracts could be made
with the tenants who live,
who would pay a minimal rent that covers overhead charges.
This is much better than having the apartment vacant,
and spending extra money on guarding them.
This stop is 9-15 Dankó street.
We're standing in front of a homeless shelter. No comment.
During winter, when Budapest's mass shelters are full,
there are still approximately 4,000 people living on the street.
There simply isn't enough place in the shelters.
The other thing is, and I'm speaking from experience,
that it's not pleasant to live in a mass shelter.
Sometimes it's inhumane.
There are shelters with 200 people sharing a single room.
Instead of making these mass shelters even bigger,
normal housing should be provided for everyone
through a social housing program.
Yeah, sure, if I could get a free flat, I'd stop paying my mortgage, too!
If we want to live, work and raise a family, we need proper housing.
And we don't want free housing.
There are a lot of apartments left vacant due
to their very poor condition.
Property owners have no funds to renovate them,
but they don't want to sell them
because they may lucrative investments in the future.
The local government should establish a municipal management system,
in which the properties that aren't used would be taken over
by the local government for management and rented out to
those who need housing.
Another solution is for private owners
to enter into temporary leasing contracts
with an organisation, which would then rent the apartment out
to those in need.
In this case, those who use the apartment or building
would only pay a small fee for the overhead charges.
This would be beneficial for them as well as for the private owners.
A third solution to the problem
of privately owned vacant properties
could be a low-interest loan that the proprietors
could use to renovate their apartments,
on the condition that until the loan is paid back to the state,
their apartments would be used as social housing.
These solutions are good because the owners get money,
while the apartments also have people living in them.
The country has no proper housing policy regarding empty apartments,
and local governments have no interest in having people live in them.
They prefer paying millions of Forints to keep these apartments vacant.
The most important thing is the right to housing,
this is what we're fighting for.
[We're fighting for] human rights,
the human rights of homeless living on the street and in social institutions.
And for them to be able to stand up for their interest in every walk of life.
We're different from other organisations with similar goals in
that we don't provide charity or services in the sense of giving people
bread and butter every day, or warm food, or clothes.
Sometimes it happens, but this isn't typical.
Everyone wants to help themselves,
and we want to help them not to have to do it on their own.
The city is for all! The city is for all!