Housing ... Crisis generating crisis

ALL that was left in the series of crises that the country is suffering from is the sit-in organized by people of Mutla area in demand for the issuance of construction permits for the plots they obtained years ago. This would have completed the picture of the state’s failure to implement its policy, as if there was a virus moving between its institutions and incapacitating them while no one hears the voices of protest or sees the suffering of the people.

This sit-in is a clear expression of the complexities of the decades-long crisis. Here I am referring to the housing issue, which has become a social balk, and has even extended to clinical death.

In 1963, the state developed a housing policy but instead of developing it in the proper scientific manner, it deliberately distorted it under the pressure of MPs and influential people, and this made matters worse with every application for housing care.

In the beginning, the government house was considered as a paradise for its residents, but with the wrong modifications, this policy has turned into a source of enrichment, especially when the citizens were allowed to build according to how they desired, and not as required in terms of environment and urbanization.

Since then, housing care application requests began to pile up, rendering the waiting period to reach 20 to 25 years. As of March 2021, the number of requests reached 92,805 due to a defect in the process of providing land because a very large percentage of it is owned by the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, which does not grant it until after a great effort.

The flashing zeal had reached its fever pitch, so a large percentage of the citizens turned down the “government house” because it did not meet the glamorous architectural desire of the citizens.

On the other hand, there were opportunistic benefits that MPs strived to gain, including the so-called “rental allowance for employees”, which cost the state about KD 1.1 billion in over five years.

Nonetheless, given that everything in Kuwait, since the 1980s until today, is born by Cesarean-section without waiting for its full growth, the patchwork increased the severity of the crisis until we reached where we are today. If the law of housing care was fully applied, this problem would have been resolved a long time ago, but because of the need to “look different”, we entered a dark corridor of problems.

There is housing care in several Arab countries, but it is completely different from what is implemented in Kuwait, and has proven its success because the state made its decision from the beginning.

It did not just provide the land and loan to the citizen, but rather worked on providing the land by commissioning major companies to build it, and then hand it over to the citizen. Some even adopted vertical housing, leaving no choice for the housing care seekers, unlike in Kuwait.

Even Egypt and Morocco got rid of the slums in the simplest ways without costing a penny. They offered the citizens housing for which they will repay through comfortable installments with the guarantee of the state. The same is with the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Many years ago, some international companies offered to build Kuwaiti housing cities but under the condition that the state guarantees construction loans. However, this fell under the pressure of those who benefited from the land and real estate trade, and the government surrendered to the MPs, and did not take this smart step.

Today, with the spread of the financial crisis in the state institutions, the housing projects are becoming ink on paper. This crisis will continue to generate crises due to the absence of the government or those in control of the affairs of citizens.