Some promising directions for solving the problem of abandoned housing in Ukraine

This article analyses the negative impact of abandoned housing on the local community and proposes institutional, financial and economic mechanisms to address the problem of abandoned housing in Ukraine. Based on the definition of abandoned housing that we have developed in our previous studies, and taking into account foreign experience and national peculiarities, we identify the following list of negative consequences of the presence of abandoned housing in a community: 1. Deterioration of the financial situation of housing and communal services providers. 2. Suboptimal load on the engineering infrastructure. 3. Deterioration in the quality of housing and communal services. 4. Additional costs for the owners of nearby properties. 5. Additional costs for the local budget. 6. Deterioration of the sanitary condition of the building and the surrounding area. 7. Increased crime rate/number of offences. 8. Decreased attractiveness of living in the house, block, neighbourhood or community. Following the identified negative phenomena caused by abandoned housing, the study proposes fundamental approaches to solving the problem of abandoned housing. In this case, the achievable effect of solving the problem of abandoned housing is considered to be optimisation of the load on the engineering infrastructure of cities, as well as reduction of losses and costs of housing and communal services providers, owners of neighbouring housing, and local budgets. Among the possible approaches, the optimal one is where abandoned housing ceases to be abandoned. The primary measure to achieve this goal is to work efficiently to collect debts from owners of abandoned housing, as the latter usually have significant debts to housing and communal services providers, managers, and condominium associations. The result of such work is either further responsible behaviour of the owner or his/her change, up to the transfer of abandoned housing to communal ownership. The study proposes the establishment of "abandoned housing agencies" by local governments to consolidate the debts of owners of such housing with subsequent foreclosure and also proposes fundamental approaches to the principles of operation of such agencies. It is proposed to consider these agencies not as debt collection companies but as a tool for a broader mission of reorganising the housing stock and optimising the load on the community's engineering infrastructure based on the principle of "saving part when you cannot save all". To this end, the paper describes the fundamental principles of such agencies. The article also describes the model of reorganising the housing stock and optimising the load on the community's engineering infrastructure based on the principle of "saving part when it is impossible to save all". In the context of a declining population in the community, we propose to identify "priority" neighbourhoods and districts on the preservation and development of which the community will focus its efforts and to which residents of other neighbourhoods and districts will be assisted in relocation