Ukraine’s Co-Op Associations Access Free Legal, Management Advice from USAID-Supported Consulting Center
Although her life had not been easy, Marfa Trykashyna, a single retired woman, has always relied only on herself. Until she was 64 years of age, she resided in a dormitory. When the opportunity arose to purchase a separate apartment, she didn’t hesitate for a moment. Marfa became a member of a housing cooperative that was in the process of constructing a new apartment building. When the construction was completed, she was thrilled to have her own place at last. Her happiness soon turned to dismay when inspectors from Ukraine’s State Tax Administration attempted strip her of UAH 3,000 in dubious taxes and fines for the “virtual” value of her apartment.
Unable to thoroughly understand the predicament in which she found herself, Marfa decided to look for professional assistance and approached the Boston Cooperative Consulting Center. Implemented under the auspices of the Ukraine Citizen Action Network (UCAN), with support from USAID, the consulting center provided Marfa with legal advice free of charge. With the center’s assistance, she and 72 other families from the same building, who collectively were fined UHA 240,000, won the case against the State Tax Administration in the local court.
Several Chernihiv city residents of high-rise buildings established Boston Cooperative after they became tired of the inefficiency, poor quality and highly unsubstantiated prices of communal housing services provided by the State Communal Service (SCS), a government-run monopoly. They decided to compete with the state monopoly and formed a cooperative association. Their aims were simple – to get control over the quality and price of communal services and to effectively allocate funds for servicing buildings, including maintenance of landscaping, playgrounds, courtyards, fences, and waste removal.
Boston Cooperative Consulting Center was formed through USAID support, to provide free legal services, as well as managerial and expert advice to other cooperative residents in Chernihiv. Within a year, 23 new cooperative associations had been formed, increasing the number of associations in Chernihiv by more than 50 percent from 40 to 63. Further, each of the new associations had relied on the consulting center for support of some sort. Today, many Chernihiv residents rely on the center’s legal consultants for expert advice on housing issues.
As for the Boston Cooperative, residents finally feel they are the true masters of their domain. They have become a close-knit community, taking full responsibility for their housing and the surrounding territory. Boston Cooperative Manager Borys Romanenko has gone beyond the call of duty to organize community-to-community soccer matches and voluntary clean-up days. He doesn’t hesitate to dress as a Father Frost on New Year’s Eve for the local kids. Today, a children’s playground stands where once there was a garbage dump. Twenty-eight trees have been planted in honor of the 28 infants who have been born in the building.
After the mass media took note of the Chernihiv cooperative’s success in competing with the government-run SCS, residents and cooperative associations from Rivne and Kharkiv started contacting Boston’s Consulting Center to take advantage of its experience and know-how.
According to Vyacheslav Salnykov, the deputy head of the Chernihiv Regional Administration, tough competition from the local cooperatives has forced the SCS to pay closer attention to the needs of residents.
“Now, SCSs increasingly compete to provide communal-housing services to cooperatives,” he explained.
As for Marfa, in appreciation for her activism which saved her neighbors 240,000 hryvnya, the Boston Cooperative offered her a job maintaining the building and the grounds. Her new position provides her with additional income and helps her keep active in her community.
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Children enjoy the playground that replaced the garbage dump near the Boston cooperative
Photo Credit: Konstantin Pertsovsky |
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