‘New care home could have been built with £600,000 spent on rent’
SUCCESIVE governments have spent more than £600,000 over 11 years renting a hotel as a “temporary” care home, money that a campaigner says could have been used to build a new home for elderly people in Lapta. According to a report by Cyprus
sister newspaper Kıbrıs, the Social Services Department’s Lapta Care Home was shut down in 2011 because it was in “danger of collapse” and also due to the presence of asbestos.
After the closure of this building, the state moved the care home residents to a former monastery that had been leased to an individual by the Cyprus Foundations Administration (Evkaf) and used as the “Ayia Anastasia Hotel”.
Kıbrıs reported that the government pays the individual £5,000 a month in rent, plus VAT, for the building, or more than £600,000 since 2011.
The paper said that while Evkaf properties cannot normally be sub-let, the tenant has the right to receive rent if they have “invested” in the property.
Speaking to Kıbrıs, Association of Elderly Rights and Mental Health chief Prof Dr Hatice Jenkins said that a new Lapta care home could have been built by now with the money spent on rent.
Prof Jenkins said she had raised the issue recently with the Labour and Social Security Minister, Hasan Taçoy, and was told that the matter is one of his “top priorities”.
“I hope the necessary resources are found and a care home is built,” Prof Jenkins said.
She added there is a need for a care home in “every region” of the TRNC so that elderly people in need of care are not too far from their homes and relatives.
“Currently, 12,000TL is needed to care for an elderly person at home,” Prof Jenkins said. “This is a very difficult situation for poor families.
“In addition, our elderly population is increasing day by day; it has increased from nine per cent [of the population] to 12.5 per cent.”