Social housing allocation programme announced
Minister for Social Accommodation Roderick Galdes announced the strategy for the allocation of social housing.
At a conference, Minister Roderick Galdes announced that recently the Housing Authority has begun a process of allocating housing in the new social housing sites, part of the largest social housing construction project in the last forty years. “In the housing sector we are not only giving a key to a new home, but a key to a new and stronger life,” said Minister Galdes, who presented a full program of allocations, which shall take until 2023.
“We needed a policy approach based on love for the people and for those who need it most,” said Minister Galdes, who went on to say: “we wanted to strengthen the stock with an integrated and holistic plan, which caters to specific needs. This has been the innovation we have brought, we transformed housing policy from an area dictated by the rules of management by crisis and generic solutions, to one guided by the principles of management by design which addresses the root of social challenges.”
For the first time, as a government, the way social housing will be allocated is being published transparently, he said.
“The following are a few of the initiatives and preventative measures that halved the waiting list rate: the profiling study, the massive project to build 1700 new homes, 700 allocations made in the last three years from existing stock that were complemented by the restoration and regeneration of vacant homes, the Specialized Housing Programmes, the Rent Benefit and home repairs.”
The process of allocating new social housing sites by the Housing Authority has recently begun. Applicants will be notified in advance when and where they will be entering their new home. From its highest point in 2017 of 3,288, the waiting list will drop by sixty percent (60%) by the end of this year (2021) to 1,321, the ministry said. 279 families will move into their new home early next year (2022) at the new sites in Birkirkara, Attard, Żebbuġ, Siġġiewi, Żurrieq, Kirkop and Qrendi. In addition, there will be another 100 allocations from the rental scheme operated with private owners (‘ Nikru biex Nassistu’).
By the end of 2022, the waiting list should be fewer than 800 people.
These allocations are being made in accordance with the allocation policy announced by the Ministry for Social Accommodation and the Housing Authority last August.
“The social housing of the 70s and 80s was the foundation stone on which the generation responsible for building today’s Malta was formed, this social housing project will be the next cornerstone on which future Maltese generations shall build their future,” said Minister Galdes.
The Minister added that the challenge he was entrusted with in 2017 in this sector was tough, but together with the Housing Authority, it was tackled effectively through hard work and a strong sense of social commitment.
“I believe that this is how the social field should be run, with transparency and in the most sensitive way to the needs that exist around us,” concluded Minister Galdes.
Also present at the event was Leonid McKay, the Housing Authority’s Chief Executive, who said that “we chased after every key”. He went on to say that only in this way could we begin to address the waiting list of those waiting for alternative accommodation.
McKay said that “we have passed the applicants through a rather strenuous administrative process” in order to ensure that those who are being allocated a new unit are really in need. McKay outlined the new allocation policy, stressing that from next January any new contract will remain a lease and will not be sold. He also added that leased places should no longer be given as if they were a lifelong donation.