The Housing Authority is currently building 460 new apartments and maisonettes and 500 garages at a cost of Lm11 million and is about to award contracts for a further 200 apartments, Social Solidarity Minister Dolores Cristina told Parliament yesterday.
She said new building was in hand in Pembroke, Mriehel, Mtarfa, Qawra, Kalkara, Mgarr, Naxxar and Zebbug. These properties would be rented out or sold under the shared ownership scheme.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day debate on the estimates of the authority, Mrs Cristina said the authority, however, was increasingly active in urban regeneration and was helping people move into existing vacant dwellings.
Urban regeneration projects were in hand in Cospicua and Floriana, with more work planned for Valley Road, Msida, among other localities.
She said the shared ownership scheme, introduced last year, had been very successful, with 391 tenements having a commercial value of over Lm17 million being allocated in this way. The majority of tenants bought a third of their properties.
The authority had also launched schemes to buy or rent dwellings from the private sector for re-allocation to those who needed social housing. So far promise of sale agreements had been signed for the purchase of housing blocks in Paola and Valletta and the lease of a block of apartments in Qawra.
For next year the authority was allocating Lm1 million for the purchase of vacant properties from the private sector.
Lm2 million were also being allocated as direct assistance for first-time buyers along with a new guarantee scheme to help first time buyers to borrow for purchases from the private sector.
At the same time, the subsidy scheme on rents from the private sector would continue. The authority had 861 beneficiaries under this scheme last year.
The authority was also raising the maximum amount of assistance it could give tenants to enable them to repair or upgrade their properties rather than seek an alternative. The maximum allocation which may be given by the authority to tenants in government housing to improve their homes had increased to Lm3,000 from the original Lm1,000, while Lm4,000 were being granted for those who needed to restore dangerous properties (from a previous Lm3,500).
Assistance for the installation of lifts in the private residence of people with disabilities had been raised to Lm5,000.
Mrs Cristina said the authority this year had a revenue of Lm7.5 million from the sale of property, mostly through the sale of properties which tenants had originally rented. Criticism that the authority acted like an estate agency was unfair, however, Mrs Cristina said, because such sales were always heavily subsidised.
The minister said that in allocating tenements the authority was careful to follow a mixed tenants system. It was important to have the inter-generational element and a mix of people who lived alone, families with children and people with disabilities, thus creating a well balanced community.
The new apartment blocks included energy saving devices such as double glazing, solar water heaters and special roof insulation, resulting in lower energy consumption for tenants. Lifts were also being installed to facilitate access for people with particular needs, such as wheelchair users. Mrs Cristina pointed out that in assisting tenants to buy their homes, the authority was being careful that they would not then sell on their properties for speculative purposes. Should a property be demolished to make way for a number of apartments, the authority would be due 25 per cent of the value of the land.
Lm2.8 million were granted by the authority this year in subsidies for social needs, which was Lm250,000 more than the year before. Organisations which had benefited from the authority's assistance included the Richmond Foundation, Dar Merhba Bik, Dar l-Emigrant, the Ursoline Sisters, the YMCA, Agenzija Sapport and Dun Ang Seychell's home for persons with disability.
The authority was also using EU funds on the Equal Programme where it trained and helped to house young adults who previously lived in institutions.
Concluding, Mrs Cristina said the amalgamation of the Housing Authority and the Department of Social Housing was now becoming a reality and would be almost concluded by the end of this month.