New housing support programs are planned in Riga, for example, a program of rental apartments for young professionals, Viesturs Zeps (For Latvia’s Development), the head of the Riga City Council housing and environment committee, said in an interview with LETA, In the upcoming municipal elections, the parties running in Riga will have to define how they see the further involvement of the municipality in the insulation of Soviet-era apartment buildings, Zeps said.

At the turn of the year, there were public concerns that funding to help animals in distress in Riga was being cut. The municipality explained that a new procurement was under way. It was revealed that only one bidder had applied for the contract. Is this a normal situation?

The story is a little longer. Under the legislation, every municipality must ensure that stray and wild animals are dealt with in its territory. In Riga, through a procurement procedure, we entrust this function to professionals - animal shelters, veterinary clinics - who have the relevant experience and capacity. Historically, we have had a number of market players providing these services, most notably Ulubele and Labas Majas. They have also fought each other, both in procurement and in public rhetoric. However, the contract for finding and bringing these animals to the shelter, as well as for the hotline, has been in force with Social Enterprise Zoopolicija.

Now, when new tenders are announced, the concern is that there is only one bidder, and prices have risen dramatically on a number of items compared with the previous contract.

At the moment, to ensure continuity of the service, the results of the tender, which closed on January 7, are likely to be converted into a contract, but Riga City Council experts have been asked to assess why the prices are changing so significantly when the number of animals to be handled remains basically unchanged.

There are regulations, stating that dogs and cats must be microchipped. Does anyone monitor this?

At the moment, it is a voluntary obligation for dog and cat owners. The Riga City Council is working on new rules on the wellbeing of pets, which will largely cover the issue of registration and chipping of dogs and cats. This will then allow information to be gathered on the number of pets and the infrastructure needed for this.

But how will this be controlled? Will the police be going around, looking for dogs and cats?

I think that the control will be selective, i.e. if the municipal police see that dogs are being walked, they can check it. The police actually have that possibility at the moment. Of course, to be honest, the police have more important things to do, so this will just be an additional duty. We shall see what the final version of the binding rules is.

Continuing on environmental issues, air quality has always been an issue in Riga, and is often a particular focus because of the port terminals adjacent to Sarkandaugava. What is the current situation?

We have monitoring stations in several places. If we look at last year, the air quality in Sarkandaugava was within normal limits. There are dates when more air pollution has been recorded and then we try to understand what happened on those dates. What we are doing now is strengthening the monitoring capacity to understand where the pollution is and how it is moving.

Of course, it is not news that the biggest polluters in the city are heating and cars. At the beginning of the year I pushed for new regulations on heating sources to reduce the impact of heating on pollution. Researchers analyzed, among other things, the composition of the dust on Brivibas Street, and it was found that the dust there contained even more heating emissions and materials associated with the rolling stock of cars than exhaust gases. There was also a lot of sand. If it has not rained for a long time, the dust gets into people's airways. Countermeasures at micro level include watering and wet cleaning, as well as planting trees and shrubs. It is also about diverting heavy vehicles away from the center and electrifying public transport. Of course, we can argue about the environmental impact of the full life cycle of electric vehicles, but it certainly improves air quality.

The next step is politically sensitive, and I fear that it will not be done during this term of the council. Namely, it is the creation of a low-emission zone, which means that there are areas of the city where the movement of diesel vehicles is restricted. There are several traffic patterns, and here it is important not to fall from one ditch into another. For example, it would be a mistake to close certain streets to traffic, which would result in cars being diverted to other streets and in major congestion. The overall impact on environmental quality will then be even greater than doing nothing. Currently, the development department of the Riga City Council has a contract with the consultancy EY, who is working on the modelling and the plan. Presentations of the results should be made in May or June.

Are there theories about where these low emission zones might be?

Old Town, certain areas in the historic center. However, it is too early to say at the moment, we will get an idea when the modelling is done.

Another issue is the care and maintenance of the greenery. What is planned for this year?

Last year we had quite a lot of activities, which included tidying up, making territories greener, creating playgrounds, and this year we are continuing, and in 2025 I have managed to almost double the budget. And it is important to note that making territories greener is a real necessity in the urban environment, because we see the value of every tree, especially when there are heavy rains or heavy sun and heat waves. But it is important not to misunderstand - Riga is a capital city and there will be no open-air museum; it is important to find a balance between economic development, production and the environment in which we want to live and relax.

This year we want to keep the target we set last year and plant at least 1,000 new trees, shrubs and other plants a year. In the historic center, we will be planting large trees, which has been quite a complex project as each tree, as it turns out, needs its own construction project.

Why?

Because space is very limited and there are all kinds of communications around and under the ground that must not be touched. In total, we want to plant 50 trees in the historic center. The sites have been found, the projects have been drafted, so all the bureaucracy has been covered and we should be planting in the spring.

Trees will also be planted in parks, which we will do together with Rigas Mezi along the renovated and repaired roads and pavements.

Then there are the big landscaping projects - in Victory Park, and all parts of it, Ebelmuiza Park, Viesturdarzs. There is also an interesting project to create a specialized jogging park with different terrain and facilities for exercise in the area of Victory Park.

How much could such a project cost?

There is an organization that is prepared to donate a certain amount, which would be around EUR 300,000, and the city council would then put in another EUR 200,000-300,000. We could have full clarity on this project at the end of January.

Then there is the Dreilinkalns, which is a huge site to be redeveloped, and it is not so much a question of money as of the ability to implement the project, because it requires a special attitude. It was, after all, once a landfill, albeit very well covered with a protective layer. And while we, together with the State Environmental Service, are thinking carefully about what can and cannot be done there, people are making their own choices and walking their own paths. Our job is to improve the infrastructure so that these choices lead people in the right direction.

Housing is another major area of responsibility for your committee. There is a new program - rental housing. What is happening with it?

We are planning to go in two directions. In the 2025 budget, EUR 450,000 are earmarked for the development of two programs. The first is rental apartments for young professionals, and the second is hostels for professionals. The City Council will not build something by itself, but will contract apartments in buildings that have already been built.

Does that mean that this year young teachers could receive municipal co-financing to rent apartments in the new projects?

Yes. An alternative solution is the so-called "voucher" system, where you can choose to rent anywhere on the open market - let us see which is more cost-effective and efficient.

How many young teachers will have access to rental apartments this year?

This year we are talking about 100 families. It is not a lot, but it is a start. We have to start with something, because nothing has been done on this issue for 20 years.

Meanwhile, the public-private partnership (PPP) project is bigger.

Yes, it is already about 1,000 apartments, but the timeframe of this project is longer - 2028, 2029 - and it does not solve today's problems. However, this does not mean that we should not work on it.

It is true what studies and the experience of other capitals show, and I do not quite like this distinction either - rental or social housing. It is better if these apartments are integrated and in an apartment building, for example, 20 percent of the apartments are specifically for a group. Otherwise, you can end up with a situation like in Dreilini neighborhood with the social houses, where there are a lot of them and these people do not really come out of the environment, there is no integration.

The other direction that is being thought about is for hotels for professionals who come to work in Riga a few days a week. For example, we see that in schools where there is a shortage of teachers, teachers are employed in certain subjects whose main place of work is elsewhere, and they come to teach lessons on certain days. We would like to explore whether there would be a systemic demand for such hostels.

I should also mention that we have attracted a lot of funding - more than EUR 20 million - for social housing. Three social houses will be completely renovated.

We have also managed to attract more than EUR 3 million in funding for the renovation of municipally owned housing. This is the so-called municipal housing stock, where different groups of people live - large families, people with disabilities.

Now there are rumors that these are the kind of apartments that no one wants to live in.

They are in various conditions. We have more than 11,000 apartments that have come to the municipality in different ways. Some have been bought, some have ended up as heirless property, and so on. I have asked for these apartments to be grouped according to certain criteria, which are for sale, which are beyond repair, etc., so that we ourselves understand what the housing portfolio is and how to move forward with it. We are spending enough money renovating these apartments, but the queues are still there. There are about 1,700 people on the waiting list at the moment. In four years, the queue has been reduced by 1,000. I have already mentioned that we will renovate three social houses, which means that more than 200 apartments will be available at once. After the renovations, there will also be apartments that can be used.

However, the unanswered question is whether we cannot come up with a more effective solution here, too. For example, renting out flats for certain social groups, rather than having the municipality own and manage them.

Several years ago, Riga was also looking for social homes outside Riga.

Yes, there are some left, but we are now trying to consolidate our housing stock, not to expand it further. In parallel, old contracts are being reviewed. This is both the law and logic, which requires us to review from time to time who is living in these apartments.

However, there are still 1,700 people on the waiting list for municipal apartments. How can this queue be reduced?

The first step is to renovate the three social houses already mentioned, which will have almost 200 apartments. Then there is an audit of the existing flats, which were allocated 'a hundred years ago'. And then there is some kind of cooperation with private landlords, because we are not going to build that many apartments. This means that we may have to rent out the existing apartments on the market. And it will probably end up costing less than if we maintain everything ourselves.

Another option is to cover at least part of the rent, because by supporting those who can even partly cover the rent themselves, we free up more funds for those who cannot cover it at all. However, this option has not been moved so far, because it requires very detailed calculations and is a very thorough job.

Visually, it does not look like there are many new apartment building projects in Riga at the moment.

The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have, of course, taken their toll. However, a few thousand apartments do come into circulation within a year. The bad trend, however, is that a number of developers are going outside Riga and we are seeing more and more apartment buildings outside Riga. Office centers are already starting to move with it.

The third and most serious housing problem is the renovation and insulation of apartment buildings. It has long been said that there is no funding for this. There is funding from the Development Finance Institution Altum, but there is also additional funding if there are projects to fund. This is also the main task of both the Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks municipal housing manager and the Rigas Energetikas Agentura, namely to work on the preparation of house renovation projects. And now we have come to the real situation. If at the beginning of last year there were literally 10-20 houses where insulation projects had been prepared, then now Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks and Rigas Energetikas Agentura are working together on more than 150 houses. Even this is not enough for Riga. At the moment, they are working with funding from Altum. In parallel, we are setting up the Riga Energy Efficiency Fund, where we are working with pension funds that are ready to invest in insulation, which in turn will provide funding if Altum support is no longer available. It will not be like bank loans, but investments on simpler terms, because it is important to have projects with energy efficiency and greening objectives in their financial portfolio.

How many insulation projects have been implemented in 2024?

As many as 20-30 projects. When the previous program ended in 2022, in 2023 the total number in Latvia was 157, of which 50 projects were in Riga. In 2025, there are around 150 projects in various stages of readiness, and the number continues to grow. On the government side, the rules are being simplified - a smaller quorums of co-owners are needed to take a decision.

On the other hand, it raises questions: how fair is it? For example, if I am a pensioner and the repayment period is probably longer than my life expectancy...

That question needs to be looked at differently. We must invest in these houses, otherwise they will simply collapse. We are taking a pragmatic approach. Rigas Energetikas Agentura has a separate program for energy and technical audits. When the full audit is carried out, the specialist can also say more precisely what the house needs - a full renovation, just the roof, replacement windows or, ultimately, the load-bearing structures. In my opinion, this approach is much better in convincing people to invest in their own property...

However, is the main problem the inability of people to agree on the renovation of their property?

Yes.

Maybe we should liquidate Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks so that the residents themselves become more actively involved in the management of their own buildings?

An analysis of all municipal companies is currently underway, and what are the alternatives for raising funds and developing them. Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks, on the other hand, is expected to play an active role in the insulation of houses, taking on additional activities and risks. The question is how to develop the Rigas Namu Parvaldnieks in the future - where does the normal house management function remain and what happens with insulation? In the case of Vilnius, the former municipal building management company was split off to deal specifically with house insulation and energy efficiency measures. This is probably one model.

Is Riga in danger of rapid degradation of Soviet-era residential buildings in neighborhoods?

Critical houses where problems could occur have been identified. This is also the task given to the municipality by the Economics Ministry. It is also the municipality's responsibility to get involved in such situations. However, it must also be remembered that any house is owned by a group of people and the municipality cannot be expected to take care of each one individually, because the staircase, the basement and the roof are also owned by those people.

However, what is the overall situation? Will the houses degrade and collapse?

I would not like to say that. However, a group of co-owners must show that they care about their house. If they do not care about it, why should the municipality take responsibility for it? Of course, if we see a building that needs intervention, then we have an enforcement mechanism and then the residents can be billed. It is bureaucratically complicated enough, but it is not that it cannot be done.