Penza, 24 December 2017. PenzaNews. Over 150 equity construction investors who spent money on buying housing but did not receive the promised apartments took part in the rally that was held in the Dzerzhinsky public garden on Sunday, December 24, as members of the so-called "Homeless regiment".

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There was tea prepared for the people who gathered in the cold, some of whom came with small children. Everyone could get warm by having the tea.

The protesters held a banner reading "Homeless regiment" and numerous posters with the slogans: "The authorities should be responsible for the fraudsters!", "Kadyrov, finish the construction! Our authorities cannot do so", "We won't pay extra, we have already paid", "Judge Karpova, save us from Fomin!", "Building and loan association: Zhuravlev – Simonov – Kuvaytsev?" and others.

In addition, there were flags with the inscription "Homeless regiment" and indications of residential complexes and banners of the Left Front movement, which was one of the organizers of the event, as well as those of the officially unregistered United Communist Party.

The rally began with the anthem of "Homeless regiment" written specifically for it and subsequent similar campaigns to the tune of the song "We Need One Victory" from the famous Soviet film "Belorussky Railway Station".

Turning to rally participants, the press secretary of the regional Left Front department Sergei Padalkin said that a specialist "of well-known Oleg Fomin", ex-deputy of the Penza City Duma, can be appointed new manager of the company Penzastroi that had started construction of the apartments, which most people present at the rally had invested in.

"If Fomin's man is engaged in reorganization of Penzastroi, in a couple of months the company will have nothing at all, as it happened to trolleybuses of the municipal unitary enterprise "PPP" and with the buses that were sold for rock-bottom prices, they were sold out for 40-50,000 roubles," he noted.

Almost immediately after these words, a man in a mask with the image of Oleg Fomin came to the microphone. He asked why the people gathered there and requested to give him the lists with demands that were in the hands of the construction investors. Having received the papers, the man briefly looked through several of them. After commenting on what he saw with the words "will be finished", "considered" and "dream" he said goodbye to the protesters and left, while his assistants set the sheets with the demands on fire in a metal basin.

Sergei Padalkin informed those present that the issue of changing the temporary manager of Penzastroi would be considered in the arbitration court of the Penza region on December 25 at 11.40 and invited everyone to come.

Then, it was a turn of Dmitry Tsvetkov, construction investor in the residential complex in Novo-Kazanskaya street, to speak who reminded that at the last meeting of officials with the representatives of initiative groups they were invited to unite in housing and construction cooperatives and to ensure commissioning of the houses on their own, and this option was suggested as the only possible one.

"After we have created housing and construction cooperatives, our requirements are considered to be satisfied and we cannot lay any claims. All the assistance from the state will be only voluntary, so we may have to finish the construction of the apartments at our own expense," he said.

Dmitry Tsvetkov noted that the practice of construction investors in the residential complex in Kizhevatova street, whose developer was Sever-Trust, and that of the regions, where it was tried to solve a similar problem with the help of housing and construction cooperatives, showed the failure of the option proposed by the authorities.

Alexander Polyaev, representative of the problematic house in Kizhevatova street, supported his words. He warned the participants against establishing the cooperative calling for inclusion in the register of victims of developers' actions as soon as possible.

"They will do their best not to let you do so, they found faults with us too – either a comma was put at a wrong place or something else. They tried not to let us register with the list because it is submitted to the Ministry of Construction of Russia," he said promising to provide assistance in filling in the documents if needed.

In turn, Irina Suchilina, construction investor in a house in Borovikovskogo street, reported that the authorities refuse to include people who did not receive flats in the register of deceived investors because of allegedly "another type of the contracts".

"They try to minimize the register by right or wrong. If everyone is in the register, it will be a scandal," she suggested.

Several other women mentioned the fact that young families that have to pay mortgage for the missing housing and rent for a flat are put on the brink of survival.

A preschool boy who came to the public garden together with his mother recited a touching poem during the rally. He was introduced as the son of "Homeless regiment".

Officials of the regional and city authorities, as well as those responsible for solving problems of the investors ignored the campaign.

The rally, which lasted about an hour, was finished with the anthem of "Homeless regiment".