Cottonera calling

The particular social and housing challenges in Cottonera are no longer new. However, money has been spent and there have been many initiatives.

It may now be the right time to set up the necessary structures in place so that more community initiatives can survive and thrive, initiatives which bring together the housing, employment, health and social work sectors.

The following analysis of our scheme applications from Cottonera over the last five years shows various trends.

This analysis excludes work on our new urban renewal programme, as well as the important lift installation programme, and simply examines which individual households are applying to us and what kind of help they are requesting.

This analysis also excludes our care and repair service, which is an additional service to our mainstream schemes, and through which we are just starting to reach the many who need help but still do not come forward.

Scheme Z: adaptations in owner-occupied properties

The fact that we have housing poverty even among those of us who are owner-occupiers is a trend we cannot ignore forever.

Discussions are currently taking place with our major banks so that ways can be found to release equity without onerous repayments which income-poor or pensioners often cannot access.

However, given the high proportion of those who are tenants of government blocks or in old private sector rents in Cottonera, these do not represent a significant proportion of our valid applications. Out of 428 applications only 7.5 per cent came in from Cottonera.

The majority of these were married couples with a considerable number of widowed persons among them. The average age of the applicants was 52, but the majority were pensioners.

From a housing perspective it is significant that 65 per cent of these homes were sub-standard and this perhaps relates to the income of these applicants, who had an average income of less than Lm3,000.

Almost half the applicants needed a bathroom or a better one. On average, each household obtained a grant of Lm700 for repairs.

Scheme W: repair grants in government-owned properties

Out of the 437 valid applications, 84, that is 19.2 per cent, came from Cottonera, which makes it the scheme with the highest level of participation.

That the scheme attracted the highest number of applications no doubt reflects the high level of government provision in these localities.

Here, a significantly smaller number of applicants came from married households. The number of applications from households with married and separated partners are almost equal, and there are almost as many from widowed households.

Once again, the average age is just over 50, but here the income is even lower, with an average income of only Lm2,454.

Once again, the bathroom was the most urgent need and 80 per cent of applicants requested this.

This number also reflects the new flats built by the Housing Authority where clients obtain a grant to put in a bathroom of their choice, since when we used to install bathrooms ourselves in the past these were often ripped out and changed!

Scheme 5: repair grants for those who rent privately

Out of the 614 applications received from all over Malta, 71 came in from the Cottonera region. The average age of applicants for this scheme is slightly younger at 47 and only 25 per cent are pensioners.

The income earned, or declared as earned, is particularily worrying at only Lm2,082 with the lowest registering an income of Lm614.

Here too a ignificant number needed a new bathroom, but we also had the highest proportion of dangerous structures reflecting the well known problems caused by low rent levels, old rent laws and a reluctance to repair by both landlord and tenant (understandable in case of the former who have almost no rental income, and also in the latter's case if incomes are really that low).

And at 74 per cent, we have the highest percentage for substandard housing.

However, this is also the scheme where the Housing Authority paid out most, reflecting commitment to spend monies where they are most needed. An average repair grant of Lm1,457 was paid out per household.

Scheme R: Rent subsidy

This relatively new scheme is getting more popular every year. However, of the 616 applications nationally only 13, which is less that 2.1 per cent, come from Cottonera.

This no doubt reflects the fact that while many in Cottonera are among Malta's poorest citizens they are not paying market rents, indeed they are paying rent levels so low that they are not eligible for help at all. Again, the average age was 47 but with such a small number of applicants not too much can be read into these data.

Scheme 7: adaptation works for the disabled

The number of applications from Cottonera is not high, but the majority who applied live alone and are female. Not surprisingly, the average age was older, at 64. Half the applicants needed a stairlift and the rest needed a bathroom or grab rails as well as alterations to doors and windows.

In total, about Lm150,000 was spent on repair grants and rent subsidy and house adaptations in the Cottonera area alone in the period under review.

A total of 12.6 per cent of all applications nationally come from this area.

This excludes all the new building projects as well as the lift installation programme which has given a new lease of life to so many tenants in government-owned blocks.

Ms Micallef Leyson is chairman of the Housing Authority