Key Accomplishment of 17 years of USG Assistance - Page 2

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The USG Earthquake Zone Recovery Program (2001-2005)

The United States was among 74 countries that responded to the announcement by Soviet officials that they would accept external assistance following the earthquake of December 1988. The Armenia earthquake recovery efforts marked the first time since World War II that the Soviet Union accepted disaster assistance from the U.S. Government. U.S. immediate assistance totaled over $9 million, of which $5 million was authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance channeled through U.S. non-governmental organizations. Following independence, the Government of Armenia maintained the same overall approach to recovery as the Soviets, relying on new construction to re-house displaced families in new multi-unit residential buildings. However, without adequate resources to support the planned building, this soon became unsustainable. By 1998, the Government’s entire earthquake zone recovery effort had stalled.

In 1998, the Urban Institute (UI) concluded that massive emigration since the 1988 earthquake combined with privatization of the national housing stock after Armenian independence had created optimal conditions for a voucher program. USAID successfully tested use of a voucher system in a pilot program (2000-2001) in Gyumri and implemented the full scale housing certificate program (2001-2005) in cooperation with the Government and a group of private foundations and public organizations in the Armenia Earthquake Zone Alliance. USAID’s $35 million Earthquake Zone Recovery Program was designed to provide permanent housing to at least 4,000 households in Lori and Shirak regions. The program’s core achievements:

• 7,000 families (representing about 30,000 persons) received permanent housing
• Over 120 municipal sites were reclaimed by clearing of temporary shelters in 5 cities
• Over 100 public buildings (schools, kindergartens, museums, etc.) and sites (parks and squares) were cleared of displaced residents and reclaimed for public us

Since the end of the USAID-financed program, the Government of Armenia has been replicating the use of the housing certificate model to date and has distributed certificates to 1,300 homeless families out of 6,950 in need as of June 2007. 1,000 households have already purchased homes, while another 480 are to be provided with similar certificates in 2009.