Social Solidarity Minister Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca yesterday denied that her visit to a Housing Authority-owned apartment was an attempt to ridicule the authority’s CEO.

She said there was no need for resignations.

If it was your mother and you knew she was sleeping with a kitchen window that cannot be closed, would you like it?

On Thursday, the minister said more than 700 people were living in dangerous structures owned by the Housing Authority.

To illustrate her point, she went to an apartment rented out to an 89-year-old woman who complained the place was inadequate.

There, she was accompanied by Housing Authority CEO Albert Buttigieg, who looked flustered as Maria Concetta Knight pointed out all the ‘shortcomings’, including a cracked bathroom sink, a missing soap dish in the shower and an aluminium window that would not close properly.

The visit was deemed by some quarters to have been inappropriate because of the manner in which Dr Buttigieg was treated.

Ms Coleiro Preca clarified yesterday that she did not criticise Dr Buttigieg but asked him to comment on the number of complaints received from the tenants of the block of apartments they visited.

She explained there was nobody else she could seek the information from other than the CEO.

He had the main duty to see that whatever the authority paid for was delivered, she said, adding that the visit was meant to emphasise that social housing had to be approached holistically.

The apartment she visited on Thursday was not “any other apartment”, the minister noted. The elderly tenant had emerged from one trauma to move to another, Ms Coleiro-Preca said.

“Little things, that to the rest might seem petty, meant a lot for the woman.”

She said that, given the woman’s age, a soap dish and a handrail in the shower were necessary. Some of the Housing Authority’s units were meant to be occupied by elderly and disabled people, so such issues had to be taken into account beforehand.

Asked whether any heads would roll, Ms Coleiro Preca said there was no need. It was important that the shortcomings were addressed.

“It was only a show of how much the Government was committed to address social housing holistically and to give value to people’s taxes...

“If it was your mother and you knew she was sleeping with a kitchen window that cannot be closed or that when she enters the shower she has to juggle the shower gel or doesn’t have anywhere to lean on, would you like it? I’d be worried,” she said.