A 92-year-old woman on a refugee complex in Larnaca has not come down from her flat in 10 years, because her block has no lift. She is one of dozens of refugees across Cyprus left stranded or struggling as 201 blocks of flats on refugee estates wait for lifts.
Only 124 of the 368 blocks in a state programme, about a third, have been fitted with lifts, according to figures Phileleftheros obtained from the Department of Town Planning and Housing. Another 43 were marked for demolition.
On the same street as the 92-year-old, Komiton Street in the Agioi Anargyroi 2 estate, an 82-year-old woman has been unable to leave her flat for a year. When she fell on the stairs last August, an ambulance could not take her to hospital. Eight years ago, a 69-year-old man on the street died because of a delay in getting him to hospital.
Some residents with mobility problems cannot manage the stairs at all. In many blocks without lifts, the stairs are too narrow to carry a stretcher down to an ambulance in an emergency, putting the lives of people with health problems at risk.
No lift yet under new scheme
The lift programme was wound up and folded into the ‘ktiZO’ grants scheme, which offers an extra 90,000 euros for a lift on top of its grant for repairing blocks. So far, not a single lift has been installed through it, the department’s figures show.
The scheme’s second phase covers 70 blocks, 48 of which have no lift. Of those, 23 are at various stages of the process, but none has been completed. The third phase covers 245 blocks, 153 of them without lifts. Owners of 47 blocks have been allowed to move ahead early at their own request, but only nine of those lack a lift.
At Agioi Anargyroi 2, 14 of the 33 blocks have no lift. Four of them, in the scheme’s second phase, have not taken part despite being informed in 2024, and the department said beneficiaries had been told again and had still not applied. Of another 10 in the third phase, only one, on Komiton Street, has applied for a lift. On that street, beneficiaries in two other blocks did not proceed, and three more are in the third phase.
Three blocks in the first phase were declared dangerous by Larnaca DLGO and are to be demolished by the department.
Owners refuse to sign
By law, every owner in a block must sign before a lift can be installed. “The main problem and obstacle is owners’ refusal to consent to installation,” the department said.
Refusals are common among some owners of ground-floor flats, it said, because they have illegal additions and extensions they do not want to demolish. A list of blocks where illegal construction was found has been sent to the DLGOs for inspection and removal.
Where a lift cannot be fitted, the department said it had promoted stairlifts as an immediate solution for blocks where people with mobility problems live. It said residents with mobility problems had agreed to this in preliminary consultation, and the House Refugees Committee had also been informed and agreed.
Residents of Komiton Street did not know about the stairlift plan, however. When Phileleftheros asked about it, it was told the programme had ended and might be reopened depending on demand. Most residents also knew too little about ‘ktiZO’.
Wider problems on the estates
Pavements on the two Agioi Anargyroi estates are in poor condition, and the few parks there are also neglected.
Famagusta parliament member Giorgos Karoullas told Phileleftheros he would raise the issue at the House Refugees Committee and write to the Interior Minister, the department and the Directorate General for Development. “An integrated urban intervention is needed for each refugee estate,” he said, covering lifts, pavements, roads, energy and planning, as well as events and day centres for older people.
The estates’ demographics had begun to change, he said, but they remained part of the urban fabric and needed constant upgrading to avoid decline and possible ghettoisation. He called ‘ktiZO’ a good development that must be speeded up, and said a mechanism was needed to keep residents informed.
