Former nationalized houses

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Dan

Icoanei

Grigore

Mihai Eminescu

Vasilica

Vulturilor

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The social history of living in nationalized houses began in the 50's when a number of Romanian citizens were relocated by the socialist authorities from their own homes which were then redistributed to families or persons strangers from the former owners, most of the times.

A few decades later, the nationalization and then the retrocession process continue to influence certain categories living experience.

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Dan

Icoanei

Living in a former nationalized house means living in a permanent state of incertitude, especially for tenant. Although he has been living in such a house for over 5 years, for which he pays a monthly rent of 200 lei, Dan knows he might have to leave the property at any given time. Although the building in an advanced state of degradation and lacks access to utilities, Dan tries to ensure his children decent living conditions: he has built a hallway with „termopan” windows at the entrance, he put up a boiler in order to have heated water and he has arranged a small bathroom. Besides the 2 rooms in which he lives with his kids, there are 5 other families living in the same courtyard.

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Grigore

Mihai Eminescu

The house in Romana Square was built by Mr. Grigore’s grandfather, then extended by his father due to the enlargement of the family. At the end of the 40’s, Mr. Grigore’s father was arrested and the house was nationalized. The entire family – 8 persons and the cook – were moved into 2 rooms, and the rest of the house was occupied by tenants. After the retrocession process, wanting to protect the house from further degradation, Mr. Grigore allowed the tenant to continue to live there without having to pay rent. At the moment, he takes pride in the library he inherited from his grandfather and with the fact that he has managed to keep the object valuable and significant to his family.

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Vasilica

Vulturilor

For over a year and a half, dozens of persons have been living in improvised huts on 50 Vulturilor Street. Over a hundred persons who lived in former nationalized houses were suddenly evicted by the municipal authorities in the 3rd District in Bucharest. In the absence of any kind of help provided by the authorities, for those who didn’t manage to find living alternatives with friends or relatives, the only solution was to put up temporary shelters close to their former homes. In their fight for survival, these families have had to give up most of their assets and keep only the bare minimum: clothes, wardrobe, a few blankets. Without access to running water, electricity and access to gas, living in these huts means a decrease in the quality of life and replacing household practices – like washing and ironing clothes, cooking – in a constant search for any kind of resources for improvising a home.

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„This was the idea of nationalization, to get you crowded, to have you under control”

#1

Mr. C's grandfather came to Bucharest from Butimanu at the beginning of the last century. He came from a large family and moved to the city in order to go to school and make it on his own. He became a construction engineer and, for some time, his life went on at slow pace, with the regular concerns of a family with four daughters. The house where Mr. C lives at present was built by his grandfather, and so were the rest of the houses on the little street with an entrance from Calea Dorobanţi. Mr. C says that some buildings were sold as early as 1925, and, with the money from his grandfather, Mr. C bought some land nearby – the city outskirts lay here in those times, but today the area is central – and he built more houses. One of these houses is his parents'– the one where Mr. C lives now – and the other two were built very close for the four daughters; both houses have two three-room apartments, each with their own bathroom and kitchen.

The girls, including Mr. C's mother, did not get to live there, as they were very young when the communists came to power. Mr. C's luck was – as he says – that his family was allowed to keep on living in the parental house. The entire ground floor, except for one room, remained for the use of the family. One single girl out of the four left the house when she got married, her husband having received a state housing on Giurgiului Road. A nationalization paper was only made for the parental house, the other two were simply taken away by force – recounts Mr. C., the present co-owner. He was born in 1956 and up until 1995, when the house was retroceded, he had never gone upstairs, were the tenants from ICRAL lived. "We were in our house and we paid rent to the state. This is the idea of nationalization, to get you crowded, to have you under control".

Even today, one of the four girls – aged 87 now – who has been living at the ground floor of her parental house all her life, is living in fear of being thrown out. Mr. C., who in the '90s undertook the legal proceedings to recover the real estate lost by his grandfather, recounts that his family was one of the privileged ones, only because they were allowed to stay in their house and were not "spurted out, thrown away God knows where". Mr. C's was eight when his grandfather died, and one of his most vivid memories pictures the old man taking a chair and going to a corner of the garden in the evening, amid roses and sweet tobacco, lingering there alone with his thoughts until dusk. "I wondered many times what he was thinking about. I used to say, (…) – as I put myself in his shoes – I had a big family, then the state came and took my four houses, it took this, it did that, it forced tenants into my home. How did he get over all these? He was a strong man, other people couldn't do it".

72, Gazelei Str.

#2

At the arrival of Ceausescu's communism in Bucharest, people lost their homes and were pushed out into less desirable living conditions, usually forced into other houses that had been divided up to accommodate multiple families at once. After the revolution, a law passed allowing rightful home owners to get back their property by battling for it in court. Today, due to these past circumstances, some people who were occupying these spaces are now being evacuated and left out on the street without any possibilities for having better living accommodations. In terms of this, there is absolutely no help from the state.

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In this photo, Roma families at Gazelei Str, no 72 have built a temporary shelter and hanged a cardboard sign above it, displaying the word "Evacuati", translating to 'Evacuated'. These families are urging anyone to help by spreading the word about their unfortunate circumstance in hope that someone influential can quickly offer aide.

Stephanie Carranza (carranzastephanie@icloud.com)

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Furnishing, Vulturilor

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Former nationalized
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