Mayor’s Charity Accumulates Homes

  • 31 May 2016 9:00 AM
Mayor’s Charity Accumulates Homes
Benefícium Szeretetszolgálat, a charity organisation headed by Orosz Mihály, the mayor of Érpatak, has acquired at least 47 homes in the village in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, anti-corruption site Átlátszó learnt from the land registry.

The charity was set up in 2000 and connected to the small church Sophia Perennis. When administrative and tax status regulations for small churches changed the church was closed but the charity survived, according to Átlátszó.

The charity is reportedly led by a three-member board of trustees: Orosz, his sister Erika Orosz and the life partner of Orosz, Valéria Uri.

The charity acquired the homes in questionable ways, for instance, after Orosz threatened the home-owners with fines, or an illiterate couple learnt from an Átlátszó reporter that they no longer own the house they live in. In several cases Orosz misleadingly told home owners that the charity only purchased land where their homes were located, but not the homes themselves, Átlátszó learnt.

The charity rents the homes back to their former owners.

The charity purchased abandoned properties, Orosz told Magyar Idõk, because it is afraid that at the bidding of “unseen powers” the local community would lose them.

The land purchased is used in the public work programmes, Orosz underlined.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

This news item is one of many published daily by HATC, a premier subscription news service which distributes English-language info about Hungary via email or fax. For a free trial of HATC visit www.hatc.hu and click on 'Free Trial Subscription’.

  • How does this content make you feel?