Social housing should not just be about putting a roof over people’s heads but also equipping them with basic skills to manage their lives better, according to experts who have the pulse of the poor in different towns and villages.

“While it seems that the housing issue is being taken seriously, we need to introduce the concept of social architecture, a cheesy catchy phrase that has a lot of meaning,” said Andrè Bonello, secretary of the Anti-Poverty Forum and manager of Caritas’ community outreach programme.

“This is an innovative way of supporting people with social issues,” he explained.

Caritas is one of the 13 NGOs that make up the forum. Mr Bonello’s role with the Church charity includes travelling to different villages across the island and taking account of residents’ means and needs. He then drafts a report about each locality’s challenges, which helps Caritas make specific recommendations to alleviate poverty in those areas.

The forum recently sounded its concern about housing issues and rising rents.

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New finance and gaming companies have attracted a large number of employees to Malta while the opening of new universities has also enticed young foreign students here. The salaries of the employees are far higher than the average local wage, making rent affordable to them, while students could afford the rent by sharing an apartment with their fellow classmates, Mr Bonello noted.

As a result, rent has increased drastically in Senglea while in the Sliema area prices have soared from around €600 to well over €1,000. In the Swatar area prices have gone up from €400 to more than €950.

In pushing up rents, landlords were pushing people out of their hometowns. Some ended up on the housing waiting list, which still numbered around 3,000 people, Mr Bonello said.

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He admitted that the construction of housing units could be criticised because of the risk of generating ghettos: poverty is rife among people who are isolated from the rest of society.

But he proposes a solution.

These units could be managed by a holistic team made up of a social worker, a youth worker, a nurse, counsellor and psychologist, who would monitor each family and equip the residents with basic skills to help them integrate with the rest of society.

Andrè Bonello and Saviour Grima. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

Meanwhile, within these units, architects could include plans for a small shopping centre, restaurants, a child care centre and even a gym. All these could be made use of by people from outside the unit, thus fostering interaction between people from different communities.

This is the kind of “social architecture” that he envisages.

Mr Bonello’s colleague and Anti-Poverty Forum head Saviour Grima spoke of the need for a programme for people in social housing that would include a means tests every three years or so, and the provision of social and educational support.

Under the programme, the housing contract would be renewed periodically and accommodation adjusted accordingly. There were elderly couples, for example, who still lived in a multiple-bedroom house after their children moved out. This house could accommodate a larger family while the couple could be hosted in a smaller apartment.

They cannot afford to keep up with the rent

The two experts also observed that having to move from one place to another – in search of a place with affordable rent – often created instability in children’s lives, who would have to continuously change school as well.

In the meantime, societies were becoming more individualistic and the extended family – which used to provide basic needs such as counselling and social support – had become a thing of the past.

This meant that some elderly people often ended up socially excluded and locked up in their own homes.

Mr Bonello is proposing another potential solution, one that is picking up steam abroad and could be easily applied to Malta’s homes for the elderly. This was the creation of hostel-type accommodation where young people pay low rent to live in residences for the elderly.

These youths, who could not afford an exorbitant, would live on separate floors than those allocated for the elderly. However, they would have to spend some time with the elderly and support them with their everyday needs where necessary.

His experience gathering information on the poor in different areas has shown him different faces of poverty. In some areas, it is related to prostitution, “which resides door-to-door with some of the richest people”.

“Other localities host a large number of elderly people, while a couple of villages away, the balance tips towards youths.

“While the authorities are trying their best to grab the bull – or in this case poverty – by the horns, some people are still struggling to get a breather. And some are actually ending up homeless because they cannot afford to keep up with the rent.”

He added that while government and the authorities played a big part trying to tackle the issue of poverty, the rest of society must do its bit by starting from one small gesture: passing no judgment.

The many faces of poverty

▪ Schoolchildren who do not have basic skills, such as peeling fruit and eating while seated at the table. At home, they eat on a bed as the family does not own basic furniture such as tables and chairs.

▪ Living in a car or on the beach is the solution for some who cannot afford the rising rents. Others split the rent of one bedroom with someone who works their opposite shift.

▪ Elderly people who are prisoners in their own home as they live on upper floors in a block of apartments that is not served with a lift. These people might not be struggling financially but they are unable to integrate with the rest of the community.