Doctors and firefighters sent to the islands cannot find affordable housing during the tourist season

A doctor transferred to a government office on the island of Skiathos for the summer season was asked to pay rent of 2,500 euros per month. Seasonal firefighters, assigned to serve in regions far from their homes during the fire season, are stationed at fire stations.

The “lucky” firefighters and doctors who move to the islands of the Northern Sporades to offer their services are forced to live in old rundown houses, for which they pay almost half of their salary, as guests, or by renting a room in “communal” apartments to share the exorbitant rent in the summer months, when needs increase, the newspaper reports taxydromos.gr.

Firefighters and doctors are treated like…tourists and forced to spend the night in fire stations and dispensaries until they find housing without going broke financially. A typical case is the case of a doctor in Skiathos, who was asked to pay rent of 2,500 euros per month, the publication notes.

According to the head of the Volos fire service, Vangelis Karamintzas, as of May 1, the prefecture's fire brigade forces were strengthened by 136 seasonal forest firefighters, who were, in particular, called to serve fire stations on the islands of the Northern Sporades. After 20 days, the firefighters were unable to find housing and were spending the night either at fire stations or visiting local residents.

Those “lucky” ones who manage to find housing live in buildings that can be described as slums and pay rents reaching up to 400 euros. Others live in twos and threes in rented rooms to meet the high rents they are asked to pay.

The problem did not arise this year, and not only in the wider region of Magnisia and the Northern Sporades islands. It occurs every year and in many tourist areas, as tourism began to break one record after another. Similar complaints have been received more than once from doctors, firefighters and teachers, who often have to wait until the end of the tourist season to be able to settle in suitable housing.

Every year during the summer season, firefighters struggle to find housing and live in decent conditions on the islands of the Northern Sporades without shelling out a large part of their salary, notes Taxydromos. They are deployed to the islands from May 1 to the end of October as part of operational planning. Their salary does not exceed 800 euros per month.

The current seasonal firefighters were signed to a five-year contract in 2019. However, the conditions prevailing with rent in the Northern Sporades are likely to be a deterrent for civil servants, the publication emphasizes. Additional fire service personnel are expected to be sent to the islands in mid-June to fill the gaps. But no one can guarantee that they will find housing, and no one can say how much they will have to pay for it.

Karamintzas emphasized that 5-year contracts do not include housing obligationsbut this is fraught with the fact that in the event of mass layoffs for obvious reasons, the entire plan for the fire season may be crossed out.

At the same time, property owners are trying to make as much money as possible from the tourist exploitation of their properties, and municipalities have not bothered to accommodate professionals on the islands during the summer months, although they were required to do so by law.

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