MPs insist on safeguards

Parliamentary Secretary Tony Abela argued yesterday that people who received assistance from the Housing Authority to buy their house should not be allowed to sell that property without compensating the authority first.

His views appeared to find an echo in comments by Nationalist MP Joe Falzon who said that people who once benefited from Housing Authority assistance should not continue to benefit even after they were able to stand on their own feet and earn good money.

The comments were made when parliament debated the financial estimates of the Housing Authority.

Dr Abela said the government should seriously consider a ban on the re-sale, at considerable profit, of properties it would have allocated at cheap rates through the Housing Authority.

There had been several cases where tenants who were given generous assistance to buy their apartments then sold to third parties those properties for a profit of some Lm15,000-Lm20,000, he said.

The Housing Authority should reserve the right to buy such properties itself or demand compensation for the assistance it would have given.

Dr Abela reacted to claims that the authority was not focusing on social needs, pointing out that under the Labour government plots used to be allocated for Lm400 but only 20 per cent of the beneficiaries were still living in the homes they built. The rest had sold them.

Mr Falzon said young couples who were ineligible for Housing Authority assistance had to take out bank loans and go in for 40-year repayment commitments, in order to buy their own home while others enjoyed the benefits of assistance throughout their life, even when they were able to earn good money.

The authority, he said, needed to follow up those who received assistance from it, and those who eventually managed to do well should not continue to benefit to the detriment of others in need.

Mr Abela said he agreed with helping those who were really in need, but the current system, not just at the Housing Authority, was such that it encouraged people to under-declare their income and hide their assets so that they could then be eligible for assistance.

This, he insisted, was a situation which needed to be considered.

Earlier, Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina said at the opening of the debate that the Housing Authority would be streamlining its various assistance schemes and make them more user friendly.

She said the take-up for the authority's schemes had increased, but it was important that people who had already benefited did not seek even more assistance, since the authority wanted to see a wider distribution of beneficiaries.

Mrs Cristina said the authority was showing itself to be receptive to society's changing needs, providing a greater number of units for single mothers and battered women as well as sheltered housing for the elderly. It remained heavily involved in urban renewal projects and would also shortly make available apartments that were tailor-made to save energy.

Among new schemes the authority was introducing was a shared ownership scheme to enable those with a small income to own their own home.

Mrs Cristina said the authority's total expenditure in the past year amounted to close to Lm9 million. While the authority was given a contribution from the consolidated fund, it generated most of its income.

The authority built and sold or rented property at subsidised rates. It also provided schemes and initiatives to assist people who were living in substandard conditions.

Ms Cristina said that only Lm4.8 million were spent this year out of the Lm5.9 million projected for the building of new apartments owing to technical and legal problems which were being sorted out.

The Lm4.8 million that were spent, however, was still Lm500,000 higher than the amount spent in the previous year.

The authority's capital expenditure since 1998, Ms Cristina said, amounted to Lm24 million. Lm5.35 million were being projected for next year.

The authority, Mrs Cristina said, had acquired new property which it would link to its existing offices in Floriana as preparations continued for the merger with the Department of Social Housing.

Mrs Cristina said the authority over the past year spent Lm30,000 on the repair of apartments rented out by the government and gave out Lm300,000 in grants on the purchase of first residences.

Ms Cristina referred to a scheme which addressed the needs of persons with a disability, pointing out that this did not mean that a family with a disabled resident could automatically apply and be eligible.

The authority had extended its schemes for the housing of single people aged over 30.

She said that 180 families had benefited from the installation of lifts in housing blocks.

Another popular scheme was the care and repair in which people were actually assisted to go to the authority to seek help for the upkeep of their residence.

A new initiative was that of shared ownership. This was projected to aid those with very low income and who had never had the opportunity to own their home. A place had already been identified and there would soon be the first beneficiaries.

The sale of government apartments scheme was also very popular. A number of units were reserved for married couples or people with children. 30 per cent were reserved for couples, 10 per cent for persons with a disability and five per cent for singles over 30.

The authority last year had also assisted the YMCA, which provided short term accommodation to those in need, Dar Merhba Bik, which helped battered wives, and the Emigrants' Commission.

Due to changing lifestyles, the authority was receiving more requests for smaller properties and the authority was looking at the building of one-bedroom flats to serve the needs of its clients.

Mrs Cristina said that urban renewal projects were currently going on in Floriana, Msida and Cospicua.

David Agius (PN) said it was worth noting that no one had accused the government or the Housing Authority of corruption or discrimination, in contrast to the situation in the past.

The opposition had accused the government of doing nothing about vacant houses and reviving the rental market. Yet the opposition speakers had said absolutely nothing on what they felt should be done.

Mr Agius augured that Mepa and the Housing Authority would find a way to be more efficient and less bureaucratic.

Competitiveness Minister Censu Galea augured that the amalgamation of the Housing Authority and the Department of Social Housing would be completed soon.

He said the Labour opposition had not yet made a clear declaration in writing that it would not reintroduce requisition orders. Neither had the opposition formally declared that rental agreements would not be superseded by new laws - a declaration which was needed by owners so that vacant property could be made available for rent. The government was determiend to go ahead with rent law reform and he hoped the opposition would not now come out against, for a million reasons.

Mr Galea said that in building apartment blocks, the Housing Authority should also allocate some of its funds for the provision of utility services.

Mario de Marco (PN) noted that the financial estimates showed that the authority intended to spend more on capital projects and on its assistance schemes next year. Current spending was already well above what used to be spent under the Labour governments.

Dr de Marco welcomed the new shared ownership schemes and especially of clustered sheltered housing, such as that planned for Merchants' Street, Valletta, to benefit the elderly.

He noted that the strongest demand for social housing came from the harbour area. Some 3,000 were seeking alternative accomodation, meaning that despite the hard work of the authority, one was only scratching the surface. The problem could not be solved by building more apartments and selling them cheaply. Only a quarter of the aplicants had a job and most had an income of some Lm3,500, meaning they could not afford the new apartments.

The housing problem could not be solved by building 3,000 apartments and one had to tackle the roots of the problem. For example, dangerous houses should be repaired, more lifts should be installed in apartment blocks to keep them accessible for the elderly and rent subsidy schemes should continue to be improved.

Nonetheless the authority should allocate more apartments to the Department of Social Housing.

Parliamentary Secretary Helen d'Amato said the authority was increasingly helping NGOs as part of its social function. Such assistance was given through rent subsidy and also the provision of apartments as in the case of the Richmond Foundation, YMCA and Dar Merhba Bik. A number of apartments had been reserved for wheelchair bound people and sheltered housing was to be provided for the elderly. The importance of this initiative was borne out by the fact that in Valletta alone, there were 337 people aged over 70 who lived alone. Such people sought alternative housing to bear their loneliness.

Winding up, Minister Dolores Cristina said she intended to present proposals on a revision of the rent laws to the Cabinet by the middle of next year.

The opposition, she said, had not said anything on how to put vacant dwellings on the market. Should one use the carrot or the stick? One proposal, which the Housing Authority was already implementing, was to help in the rehabilitation of dilapitated buildings so that they would be used.

The authority, he said, had already presented a memo aimed at improving rent subsidies.

Mrs Cristina said the question which was being asked was whether people who were once given a government apartment but now also had their own properties, which they rented out, should continue to enjoy the government apartment. Such questions should be answered, but the opposition was again not saying anything.