We had to make a fire escape plan for our houses, with at least 2 exits.. which I really struggled with cause I lived on a high floor, so no jumpimg out the window, and no fire escapes only meant I could do 1.

The roof. If yours flat. And even modern housing doesn't have two sets of stairs per entrance(?).

• Accesability: The majority of commie blocks had no elevators, with the exception of quite tall ones.

Got it. You are talking about very old 4-5 story buildings.

EDIT:

• Renovations: Pretty simple - the apartments are usually owned by individuals, rather than a housing company, and getting all 60 or so people to agree to renovate the outside of the building is imposible, with both poorer people and older people stubborn to change, as well as alcoholics and the like

Wierd. It is much easier to get 50%+1 in "small" 60-appartments building, than in same in new housing with over 10k people living in 3708 flats.