Central Malta calling

Although it is traditionally the Cottonera area that is associated with our most challenging housing problems, our older urban cores, particularly Qormi, Hamrun and Birkirkara (as well as Sliema albeit to a lesser extent) are facing the challenges of...

In fact as far as the repair and other help given by the Housing Authority these three towns now represent our largest area of service, reflecting not only the pre-sense of problems, but also more of a willingness to repair than from other localities.

Although as a percentage of our applicants in total (including issues for sale and VAT refund) Central Malta represents around 14% of applications, when one looks at our repair schemes alone almost 20% come from this part of Malta alone. And if one just focuses on Scheme 5 a full 25% come in from Hamrun, Qormi and Birkirkara.

Again, the majority are not applying from their own homes or from government-owned properties (as was the case in Cottonera) but from privately-leased homes. In fact in this locality only 6.2% came in for repairs to government-owned properties.

In more detail the picture for the period under review (1999-2003) is as follows:

Repair schemes - Scheme Z: adaptation works in privately owned properties

Although the largest group of households applying were married (41%), a large percentage were single (26%) or widowed (24%). More than half were over 60 years old reflecting the well known trend of older people living in older properties. Average incomes were less than Lm3,000 while 24 per cent had less than Lm2,000.

When one looks at the works requested in the periood under review, 50 wanted a bathroom, 40 had a dangerous structure and 58 had housing we would call substandard.

While the number needing a new bathroom was not surprising, the amount of danger was, with many not knowing they had this danger until our architects called.

The awareness generated by the Care and Repair campaign in this regard cannot be underestimated as we always have a surge of applications following this campaign.

The average grant paid out was for Lm1,300 and the maximum is Lm2,500.

Scheme W: repair works in government- owned properties

This scheme had very few applicants reflecting perhaps the better house condition of the government-owned units in these localities and on average the beneficiaries were in receipt of benefit.

Here most applied for a new a bathroom although works to apertures, water and electricity and drainage systems also figured.

Scheme 5: repair works in privately-owned properties

Again, the scheme which attracted most applicants from these towns had a large proportion of married applicants (38.1%) but a large number were single (22.4%) or widowed (25.7%), the latter group elderly women living alone generally being the ones coping with the worst housing conditions. Through this scheme 70 children benefited too, obviously from both the married or separated single-parent households.

The age range was enormous, with the youngest being 19 and the oldest being 96.

The average age was 60 and it is important to remember that except for our issues for sale most applicants to the Housing Authority are elderly people, something one needs to bear in mind when considering how we deliver our service and how the human and people-intensive element is paramount while Websites and the like may be as yet of very little help to our typical client.

Computer access to an application is of far less importance than frequent human contact with our client, most of all to even persuade them to apply in the first place.

Again, most applicants were on benefit with only eight earning more than Lm4,000.

Eighty-two requested help with a bathroom, 53 had some dangerous structure in the house and 110 houses were actually substandard.

Scheme R: rent subsidy

Here the applicants tend to be younger not least because many older people are living in old fixed and very low rents and are not eligible for help with their rent. Here the average age of our applicant was 49 with the youngest being 19. In the period under review the average payment was around Lm1,167 which represents about Lm225 per annum.

Scheme 7: adaptation works for people with disability

Sixty-six applicants applied for help in the period under review with the majority coming from married househholds.

As the grant actually goes in favour of the person with a disability there is a different age range here with the youngest beneficiary being four years old and the eldest 92 while the average age is 58.

The assistance required was either for a bathroom or stair-lift/lifting aids.

These three towns represent an important and growing part of the Housing Authority's work. There has been a good response from our Care and Repair campaigns and one also has to acknowledge the very hardworking MPs who bring in a number of cients for our help from all localities.

It is also significant that here we get a greater acceptance of our way of paying grants with a percentage sytem based on income where often the applicant also has to contribute a little.

This is accepted more in these localities than others where it appears that only 100% payouts are generally acceptable.

Surprisingly perhaps, whereas more applicants from Cottonera lived in a sub-standard environment or needed a bathroom, there were more applications with danger in these localities.

We continue to rely on many of you out there to bring these cases of worst housing condition to our attention because the best marketing in the world can't beat word of mouth in the streets of our old towns and villages.

Ms Micallef Leyson is chairman of the Housing Authority