The new year for the residents of the Riga house at Bauskas Street 15 turned out to be "black": on January 2, 2026, as is known, there was a gas explosion in one of the apartments of this house - two people died. Two apartments were completely destroyed, and it was established that the entire house became uninhabitable. As a result, everyone was evicted. Those who had nowhere to go and no means to rent another place were accommodated in rental housing by the capital's municipality, as required by law. However, the law allows such housing to be used - at the expense of the municipality - only for a year after such emergencies. This means that already in January, many residents of the exploded house may find themselves on the street... "Recently, as the chairman of the Saeima's commission on public administration and local government affairs, I received a letter from the owners of the house, in which they reported that the legally established deadline for providing rental housing is expiring, and the fate of the house on Bauskas is still unclear," said Oleg Burov, chairman of the Saeima's commission on public administration and local government affairs. It is quite obvious that by January next year, the house on Bauskas will not only not be restored, but construction work will not even have begun... "Homeowners, and there are apartments in this house that belong to the Riga City Council, must first decide whether to restore the house and where to get the money for it. Perhaps it makes sense to use the neighboring land, which belongs to the homeowners on Bauskas, and negotiate with developers - if they want to build a new house nearby, then let them, in exchange for permission, repair the exploded house, or demolish it and build a new one, providing apartments to the homeowners of Bauskas Street 15. In any case, all this will take time. Therefore, I initiated the first step - to urgently amend the law, establishing that if the restoration of the damaged residential building is impossible within a year, the municipality is obliged to provide rental housing for a period of UP TO FIVE YEARS!" continued Oleg Burov (Union of Greens and Farmers). This bill is expected to be urgently adopted at the upcoming Thursday session. "We cannot solve the problem of repairing the house - it is not within the competence of the parliament. But we can change the law 'On Assistance in Solving Housing Issues' so that people do not end up without a roof over their heads in winter," explained the chairman of the Saeima commission.
