Joanna Blundell Sturt’s son has cerebral palsy and will never be able to go up stairs alone because of his condition. He is now getting too old for her to help him up the stairs to their apartment alone. Photo: Mark Zammit Cordina

Among the applicants for social housing, 29 people have been on the waiting list for 25 years, according to data provided by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Social Accommodation.

Data shows that only slightly over six per cent of people on the social housing waiting list were given a place to reside in last year. By the end of 2017, only 210 out of 3,290 people had been taken off the waiting list.

A spokeswoman for the parliamentary secretariat said the Housing Authority is currently conducting a profiling exercise to identify the status of all the applications. 

The waiting list is consulted by an Allocation Board whenever premises are freed up, she said.  Occasionally, urgent humanitarian cases arise which require immediate attention.

The spokeswoman added that the Allocation Board was restricted to the locality preference that applicants demand.

“The process is a continuous one where conditions of applicants and availability of alternative property changes on a daily basis,” she said.

The Parliamentary Secretariat for Social Accommodation was also asked for data of those given social housing during the last five years and the total applications pending on the social housing list.

Only 87 out of the 3,071 people on the waiting list for social housing in 2016 were provided with accommodation. In 2015, 98 people were given social housing and 227 in 2014. 

The parliamentary secretariat was also asked to provide the number of new applications received since 2014. In 2014, 590 people were added to the list, whereas in 2015, there were 414 new applications. Over 500 people were added to the list in 2016 and 580 people were added last year.

Everyone I speak to tries to brush it off to someone else

The situation can be unbearable for those still waiting for social housing. Joanna Blundell Sturt, a mother of four, has been waiting to get accommodation for over five years.

For Ms Blundell Sturt, whose 10-year-old son Omar has cerebral palsy, there seems to be no end in sight. “I have been running around everywhere trying to look for help,” the 35-year-old said. “Everyone I speak to tries to brush it off to someone else and I keep going around in circles.”

Ms Blundell Sturt said her biggest concern was finding a place with easy accessibility.  Her son will never be able to go up the stairs alone because of his condition and he is now getting too old for her to help him up the stairs to their apartment alone. She was also concerned about moving away from family and friends around her in Marsascala.

Social worker Vince Tonna had asked for the family to be given a ground floor apartment in 2013. He had then pointed out that there was social accommodation available in Żabbar.

He also pointed out that it was difficult for the woman to find an affordable ground floor flat and that she currently had to carry her son up 20 steps before reaching home.

But Ms Blundell Sturt has not yet been given social accommodation, and she told The Sunday Times of Malta she was losing hope that life for her and her four kids would get any easier.