The people of Zugló will probably remember the year 2018 for a long time, when Gergely Karácsony, then mayor of Zugló, and Rebeka Szabó, deputy mayor of Karácsony, dreamed big and applied for the European Commission's Urban Innovative Actions program. Gergely Karácsony's "model house" in Zugló became a huge failure.
The story started well: a consortium of 9 partners led by the Zugló municipality won with the project E-Co Housing, or as it is called in Hungarian, the More than apartment building. The consortium's project received a total of 4,508,055 euros from the Union, of which the Municipality of Zugló received 2,684,716 euros (approximately HUF 1 billion at today's exchange rate). Originally, a municipal apartment building with 25-30 apartments with zero energy consumption would have been built, but in the spring of 2022 it was announced that an existing municipal apartment building with only 14 apartments would be renovated. reported by Metropol , in the end the support received from the Commission was not even enough for the renovation, 160 million forints were taken from Zugló's 2022 budget and 364 million forints from the 2023 budget, so in the end it will cost one and a half billion forints to renovate the apartment building, which means that HUF 109 million per apartment goes to the renovation.
As Ádám Borbély , the Fidesz representative of the district, told Metropol, the project also had so-called "soft" parts. In addition to Zugló Municipality as a leading partner, 8 other partners participated in the project, including things like summarizing experiences, developing model models, mentoring programs, establishing the housing community, and preparing the residents. These "soft" parts therefore took 1,823,339 euros, approximately HUF 729 million, out of the total support of 4,508,055 euros.
HABITAT for Humanity Hungary was one of the partners selected by the Zugló Municipality (that is, Gergely Karácsony and Rebeka Szabó) , whose task was to "lay the foundation for residential community construction and develop the foundations of a sustainable lifestyle" As can be seen from the agreement between the Zugló Municipality and Habitat, they received a subsidy amount of 118,325 euros, about HUF 47 million. Habitat for Humanity's original goal is to help those living in housing poverty, but the György Soros, often sounds very critical of the government, and among its supporters is Gergely Karácsony's party partner, Tímea Szabó . Habitat often works together with the organization Város Mindinkié, whose best-known activist is Bálint Misetics, who is Gergely Karácsony's chief housing consultant.
the entire Metropol article here.
Image: Metropol (the project is over, the "model house" looks like this)
