Housing Authority considering public-private partnerships

The Housing Authority was actively considering the concept of public-private partnerships since its land supply is likely to run out in six years, authority chairman Marisa Micallef Leyson said.

In an interview Ms Micallef Leyson said that while private developers had expressed huge interest, it did not pay the authority to hand over its land.

"It does not make sense to give our land to a developer. If the developer has his own bit of land and he wants to supply us with some units, cheaply, that's one thing.

"But what they were interested in was developing the authority's land, which belongs to the public. At the end of the day, the authority can make profits off this land, such as selling garages on a commercial basis," she said.

The Housing Authority is the guardian of a lot of previously Church-owned land so it has to ensure this is used to maximise the number of units for social housing and not profits for the private sector.

There is also the department of construction and maintenance which employs people to develop these housing units. What would this department do if the authority did not give them land to develop, she asked.

Ms Micallef Leyson did not rule out an alliance with private developers in future and one possibility is that once the supply of land runs out the authority could start buying units from the private sector.

However, even this option could turn out to be complicated and if it did become a reality, there would have to be incredible safeguards.

"Buying units from the private sector should be a good thing, but in a small island where backs are being scratched it will be a hard choice. On the other hand, I can't see us always developing," she said.

Another option being contemplated is adopting the principle of planning gain where the developer of a large piece of land would have to supply a percentage of the units at an affordable price.

"This would be done through the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and the permit will not be issued unless the developer has provided these units. This is one way of putting a cheaper supply on the market without involving the Housing Authority," she said.

Does Ms Micallef Leyson believe the government can continue subsidising housing?

"Housing is so important that I cannot imagine the government never having a role. The private sector on its own just cares about profit - it has to. Apart from that it won't be providing decent housing at affordable prices, so the government is always going to have a role," she said.

In all likelihood the authority will continue building for another six years, ensuring that government housing was not concentrated in huge housing estates.

"In the past we wasted resources when we built huge government estates and put people of one political colour in it - those days are gone," she said.

The authority is also working hard to ensure that social housing is comfortable.

"If you put the lowest income people in a slum-type place or an overcrowded area you will only exacerbate the problem. The mistakes of social housing in the past, be it in Malta or abroad, were always that they built cheap housing for the poorest and ended up with slums."

The waiting list for social housing, which stands at around 3,000, is not an enviable one and the authority works hard to ensure that those in need get help first.

The most common cases that the authority has to deal with are single women with children who have no alternative.

Ms Micallef Leyson said there were still a lot of people living in the worst possible housing who never approached anybody for help.

With this in mind the authority has set up a "care and repair" service where the person in need will not have to go through the hassle of applying through a specific scheme.

"We are encouraging those who live next to someone who needs a bathroom or who don't have electricity to inform us about the situation. We will just go and do the repairs ourselves. Often these cases are elderly people who are self-sufficient and don't want the help or the upheaval."

The authority has already approached the parish priest of Cospicua who forwarded 15 cases of elderly women or mothers with children who were living in substandard housing.

"We expect to get many more referrals from local councils. We can't be in every town or village," she said.

The flip side of the coin is that others preferred to live in sub-standard housing because they did not wish to leave their locality for a safer alternative offered by the authority.

Sadly, the tragedy of 62-year-old Riccardo Cesare who died after an old apartment block in Floriana collapsed three years ago could have been avoided if he had taken the authority's offer to move to a flat in Hamrun, she said.

Cesare is just one of many such cases and when a tragedy happens, society criticises the authority for its lack of social conscience.

"It's very easy to criticise the department but cases should be checked thoroughly before hitting out. Everyone in Malta is choosy. I don't know anyone who isn't," she said.

Not only that, but those who are offered social housing often remove a brand new bathroom because they just do not like it.

"I'm not being critical, but this means we're not that poor and thank God for it," she said.

"We're starting to get certain problems, but there are no people in the streets. Luckily, the family in Malta is still a huge safety net."

Ms Micallef Leyson said that while there were some very serious cases of poverty, the situation was often being blown out of proportion.

"On average, social housing applicants who buy from the authority pay off their loan within 15 years, not in 25. I mean this is supposed to be the country of great poverty.

"These are low-income couples whom we vet and check. That's great, but people should not try to give the impression that there is poverty where there isn't."