Kosice's Lunik IX: 29 People Left Without Homes after Last Week's Tragic Fire

Kosice, 20 November (TASR) - The families who lost their homes in last week's tragic fire in the Maslickovo area of Kosice's notoriously poor Roma borough of Lunik IX are staying in a local authority building for the time being, TASR has learnt from the borough's mayor Marcel Sana, who added that this concerns 29 people including children. In addition to emergency accommodation, they're also being provided with food and clothing, while various non-profit and charitable organisations are offering assistance. "Until some flats are allocated to these families, we're trying to find temporary housing for them. For now, we've identified non-residential premises in one of the residential buildings that we plan to convert," said Sana, adding that the work should be financed from public fundraising organised by ETP Slovakia – The Centre for Sustainable Development in cooperation with the Lunik IX authorities. Sana reiterated that all the flats in Lunik IX are currently occupied, but the borough is applying for EU funds to build four residential buildings, creating 48 new flats in total as part of efforts to address the situation faced by the illegal Maslickovo settlement with its population of roughly 300 people. However, the new flats will be intended for those who've been living in existing flats in Lunik IX and meet certain criteria, such as payment discipline and household maintenance, with at least one family member being employed. "These families will move into the new flats, thus freeing up the existing housing units for families from Maslickovo," said Sana, adding that the vacant three-bedroom units should then be converted into one-bedroom ones. The fire that broke out in a shack in the Maslickovo area on 10 November claimed the lives of two children, and it also spread to several other shacks. As part of preventive measures, the borough plans to organise training for local inhabitants and to provide wood for heating. jrg/df