25,000 without an address, in Estonia

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

Enel Pungas, director of Population Facts Department at Ministry of Internal Affairs, told Postimees that the «addressless» come about in two ways. Firstly, people lose official addresses in Population Register as owners of residences file official applications to deregister persons from facility belonging to them, the persons concerned not having registered their new addresses at the Register. Secondly, it is the homeless who in reality lack a place to stay, finding themselves under local government care.

People deregistered by owners of dwellings amount to 24,000, in the register. The homeless are approximately a thousand.

«Population Register Act is in force since 2000. It cannot be claimed, however, that since then the numbers of the addressless have constantly increased. The number keeps fluctuating; some people register their residence, others in turn lose their official addresses in the register. The data keeps constantly changing,» said Ms Pungas.

Tallinn has 11,000 inhabitants deregistered from dwellings upon request by owners thereof; in addition to that, Population Register holds a couple of hundred homeless Tallinners.

Tallinn Vital Statistics Office senior specialist Tarmo Tropp told Postimees that every rentee has the right to get registered, in Population Register, unto their place residence, provided the existence of  an official rental contract. At termination of rental contracts, as they move elsewhere, rentees are under obligation to deregister and sign up at their new address.  

«Pursuant to law, changing the address is a citizen’s personal responsibility. Once a rental contract is terminated and one no longer lives at that address, he/she should personally report the new address; thereupon, they are reregistered. Should a former rentee show lack of diligence leaving the address unchanged, in the register, the issue disturbing the owner, the latter may physically visit city district government or submit an application electronically via citizen portal,» said Mr Tropp.

In case owner has submitted an application to deregister rentee from a dwelling, registrar shall notify rentee thereof at his/her address. Also, registrar shall publish, at Ametlikud Teadaanded (e-state Official Notices portal) a notice of having received application for deregistration. Should rentee fail to submit objections within due deadline, the Population Register shall delete street name and number of house/apartment from the person, in the register.

«However, this only happens in case there were no objections proving he/she still had right to use the said dwelling. If a rentee fails to show up at the notice sent to his/her address, then he/she evidently does not reside there,» noted Mr Tropp.

For the most part, the homeless enter Population Register by help from social workers. Once a person comes to a homeless shelter, he/she may – as assisted by social worker – submit an application to be entered into Population Register. In that case, they end up registered under the city district where the shelter is located.