Slowly but surely the Housing Authority`s repair grants are taking hold in a culture which believes new is always better, and to which recycling is still largely anathema. As the chart shows, repair and adaptation grants increased from a mere 153 households in the financial year 1997/1998 to 503 households in 2001/2002!

The figures for this last financial year also look very promising and as more applicants are usually approved in the second half of the financial year we may have as many as 700 households benefiting this year.

The amounts claimed and paid out are also significantly higher. From spending Lm120,000 in 1997/1998 we paid out almost half a million liri in the last completed financial year, i.e., 2000/2001. Almost 2,000 households have benefited from repair grants to the Housing Authority since 1996 with the largest numbers clearly, as the chart shows, claiming and benefiting in the last three years.

The Housing Authority has run publicity campaigns promoting its schemes, which were previously largely unknown. And members of the community helped too, from MPs to ministers, from parish priests to local councillors, the Maltese network has endorsed these schemes as a good idea and has encouraged people to come forward and apply.

The schemes are working. But they would work better if those who claim to campaign for justice in the social housing sector would promote the help which is available rather than raising false hopes that any administration is going to build large housing estates again, or hopefully not anyway.

Some false hopes were raised in 1996, but the idea of buying up a large block and putting hundreds of people with housing and social problems as well as a lifetime of living on social security together, is an idea that should be relegated to the dustbin, however many short-term votes would be gained with that promise.

Around 8,000 of our empty properties need substantial amounts of repairs spent on them. Getting these back into use should be a priority. However, more than one approach is needed. Most important perhaps we should not be thinking of these properties as solely a source of social housing.

That is part of the problem. We look at our worst housing. We look at those with housing problems. And those who should know better want to link the two, which essentially means putting those with the worst problems in the worst housing.

As anyone knows, repairing and converting older properties is a difficult job at best and a labour of love at least. Most of us who are educated and who think can easily understand that much of this is beyond those with the worst housing problems, most particularly women who are heading households alone with children and older women who are widowed and/or pensioners.

These are among society`s poorest people and it is clear that repair grants on their own are simply not enough. It is not surprising then that households who are headed by men dominate those who are currently receiving grants for repairs. That is why we are working on a `Care and Repair` service where we carry out the repairs ourselves for those who are living in the worst conditions, and to whom application forms and bureaucracy are inappropriate.

While some of the property which is currently vacant could be used for social housing, the majority clearly needs to be rehabilitated and brought back into use by the private sector. We have many properties where the owners are unknown or unclear, or which are being left to deteriorate because of family squabbles. Worse these are situated in our world heritage cities like Valletta and parts of the Cottonera region, areas which are not only important to us as Maltese but are part of the visual heritage that attracts so much tourism to our shores.

The Housing Authority has a small urban renewal programme with major projects coming up in Msida, Birkirkara and Floriana. However, we urgently need an urban renewal agency which is private sector money-driven to tackle other areas. Obviously, protection of our sites needs to be ensured too, but we need more money and more private sector energy. The Housing Authority`s priorities to help the most needy cannot always be reconciled with the urgent priorities to restore our historic centres, not only for the Maltese but also as an investment for generations of tourists to come.

Our repair grants are having an impact on the neediest and those who are prepared to help themselves. Important too, that geographically the largest groups of recipients are coming from our older urban areas as well as our larger towns and cities.

Figures for 2000/2001 show the largest numbers who received repair grants from the Housing Authority came from our historic towns, i.e., Valletta and Cospicua, and from our larger towns such as Birkirkara, Sliema, Hamrun and Qormi. Areas like Zebbug, Zejtun, Msida and Paola follow closely behind.

However there is still a huge and vociferous sub-culture of people whose expectations are being fanned by those claiming to be interested in social justice. These people shun repairs because they expect a government property - an expectation which can only be fulfilled by those with very high points and realistic expectations.

Chickens always come home to roost, and those currently on the attack need to imagine themselves in charge of these problems themselves before they fan unrealisable hopes. In the meantime we will continue in our efforts to help those who are prepared to help themselves, as well as those who are not always able to do so...

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