Hi

I know you are all concerned about Romanian mortgages and interest rates but there is another side of the coin which some see when they flip. I also know some of you and appreciate that you have a social conscience with solid associations with charitable organisations to help the poor and those in need.

I remember the days when I was associated with Bucharest when children lived in the sewers in the streets and when used syringes first appeared on Boulevard Unirii. I recall the overcrowding, plight and destitution that was Ferentari (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferentari ).

I didnt move to Cluj because of this but since that time I thought all that ugliness and poverty had gone. Cluj does not have such problems - the only blight on its social consscience being the rubbish dump of Pata Rat to which the former Mayor excommunicated many of Cluj's Roma. Most have now moved on but a few are still there - two children died a few weeks ago having been searching for food on the tip.

[italic]The Diplomat[/italic] was not a publication I read until Noreen Lucey recently pulled a story from it but I will subscribe from now on. A casual visit to its website today exposed the following statement:

[italic]“In Bucharest the situation is more complicated,” the Minister of Development, Public Works and Housing, Laszlo Borbely, tells The Diplomat. “Very few sector mayors are willing to cooperate and allocate plots of land for social housing.”
Bucharest Mayor Adriean Videanu has been blatant in his demands to ban social housing in his city, despite the rising costs of rent and sale. While the capital’s growth demands workers across every sector, the City Hall has no programme for promoting affordable housing. Instead it only has plans for people evicted from buildings which are condemned or expropriated.[/italic] http: / /www .thediplomat .ro /reports _0208 _1 .php

It seems that local councils in Bucharest are denying their civic duties instead prefering to sell vacant land to greedy property developers.

I'm a bit of a socialist and am prepared to stand up and say that in this day and age within a European Community such an attitude is unacceptable. Should I ever (God help me) contemplate buying in Bucharest again my checklist would include a question about the original source of the land and if there was the slightest suspicion that it had been subject to such a scam I would expose it. Countries such as Finland, Denmark and Sweden ensure that all people who cannot support themselves receive accommodation from the state as does, in theory, the UK.

Just to make a comparison with Cluj as a socially acceptable place to invest it should be noted that the 259 hectare Lomb and slightly smaller Tineretului projects will commence this year based on a public/private financing structure and include substantial social housing provision. God bless our Mayor!

A further article in the same edition of [italic]The Diplomat[/italic] ( http: / /www .thediplomat .ro /reports _0208 _2 .php ) aserts that one per cent of Bucharest's population is addicted to heroin with the problem being particularly acute amongst poor communities and children, some as young as nine. In my days in Bucharest location suggested a limited market within the nouveau rich.

The report quotes “The main problem [with drugs] is the growth of heroin users in Bucharest,” says Pavel Abraham, director of the National Anti-Drugs Agency.
It is present in all sectors of society, including students, office workers, Governmental officials and diplomats. [italic]It is also popular among the homeless [/italic]who have graduated onto heroin after inhaling metal paint aurolac. “We have clients that use both drugs,” says Cristina Fierbinteanu, project manager at a needle exchange unit for the Romanian Association Against AIDS (ARAS). “When they cannot get heroin, they use aurolac.” (my italics)

[italic]Vivid[/italic], an English language expat. publication, www.vivid.ro , has also recently focused on the subject of the Bucharest homeless http: / /www .vivid .ro /index .php /issue /90 /page /Talk%20Talk%20Talk /tstamp /1198738004 .

Ian Tilling, founder of the Casa Ioana Homeless Shelter confirms in an interview that over the years the plight of the homeless has gone from bad to worse...much worse. Ian states 'You've got to be blind if you walk around Bucharest and not notice the abject poverty. That's been the case ever since I've been here - and I first came here in 1990. It's a different kind of poverty now though - then, everyone was poor. Now, the middle class is emerging at long last, but the development is leaving far too many people behind. Its families, and old people mainly that are the hardest hit. Can you imagine, working had all your life and then in the autumn of your years being thrown out onto the street as homeless? In other countries - particularly the UK - there are enough temporary accommodation shelters and hostels to house every single homeless person. Here there is nothing.'

One of the secrets of successful property investment is to know your own back yard. There remains another side to Bucharest that remains largely hidden to the majority of foreigners but it is a significant part of the life of the city you are investing in.

I'm in the process of publishing an article that addresses environmental and rapid transport issues in the city of Cluj. It addresses some key issues in a very direct way and having forwarded it to a few for a constructive critique I find that it has been shared with others not on the mailing list. We now have an idea about an environmental conference in Cluj with contributions from the Head of Nokia and other business leaders about the envirmonental policies of their companies and countries. That will be something that local politicians will take note of.

If you investors in Bucharest care about your social environment why not visit Ian at Casa Ioana? Contact details can can be found at http: / /casaioana .org /index .php?lang=en . You can mention me...I've not met Ian personally but we have a common friend or two(Ligia and Andrea) and he will know my name as I know his. Go one step further and demand to meet with your local councillor and address the issue of what is or is not happening about the homeless and destitute in your neighbourhood.

Charles