Replacing seniors' apartments with municipal. “The project is to free prisoners of the fourth floor”

The Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister Marzena Okła-Drewnowicz said on Tuesday that the goal of the government's housing project is to release seniors, “prisoners of the fourth floor”. She presented the main assumptions of the senior lease.

Marzena Okła-Drewnowicz said on TVP3 that the key pillars of this solution are: the right to choose, maintaining the ownership of apartments and a guarantee of safety for seniors.

– It will be a possibility, no obligation, because the foundation of each decision is the right to choose – she emphasized.

Advertisement

The project assumes that Seniors will be able to use the lease on a voluntary basis, maintaining the ownership of the apartment and “concluding contracts with municipalities that will ensure adequate conditions and safety” – she noted.

This is to look like that if a senior with even a ownership apartment, but on a higher floor, without an elevator, which prevents him or makes it difficult to leave the house and activity, he can ask the municipality to apply for Replacing this apartment for a premises on the lower floor.

She indicated that this solution was aimed at improving the quality of life of the elderly, enabling them to access flats available to them in terms of architectural and functional.

– I want to publicize the issue of people who are prisoners in their apartments and show how you can from these prisons, from those spaces that limit us, free us – explained the Secretary of State. She added that it is mainly about seniors living on the upper floors (from the fourth) in houses without elevators.

Okła-Drewnowicz emphasized that in the case of apartment owners, communes will not be able to violate their property, and in the lease situation, seniors will be able to sublet their apartments to municipalities, which in turn will be able to rent them to other residents waiting in the queue. However, the ownership of the premises will remain at the senior and its heirs.

The Secretary of State pointed out that the project is already included in the list of government works and subjected to public consultations.

She pointed to the need for extensive education and changes in social awareness, so that these solutions were “effective and accepted by seniors and local governments.”

She also emphasized the need to eliminate architectural barriers, including Installation of elevators, and developing a friendly building for aging society.

The Secretary of State expressed the hope that the project could be implemented “in the near future”, which would allow ease of life to seniors and relieve the social care system.

Further consultations and cooperation with local governments and institutions responsible for social and housing policy are planned. (PAP)

mir/ jann/