Labor Party chairwoman MK Shelly Yacimovich today disclosed an official Ministry of Housing and Construction document, which sets out that eligibility for the purchase of public housing is limited to families with at least six children. The ministry is apparently giving priority to large families - a measure that benefits constituents of the minister - Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias, a member of Shas.
Current eligibility rules for buying public housing, according to the Ministry of Housing website, are homeless handicapped persons and their families, residents of public housing that lack handicap access, and new immigrants.
The Ministry of Housing letter, dated March 2010, states, "The waiting time for a four-room apartment in central Israel is extremely long. Under these circumstances, Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Atias decided to solve the problem by allocating especially large budgets for the purchase of public housing apartments."
In other words, the state will allot money for the purchase of public housing, when the priority for recipients will be large families.
In view of the enflamed public debate over affordable housing, Yacimovich disclosed the document, calling it discrimination in favor of the haredi (ultra-orthodox) community. The core of the claim is a phrase in the letter, which states "exhausting earning ability". The Trajtenberg committee recommended that the phrase should be the threshold condition in 80% of housing projects. Atias will submit the criteria to the Israel Land Authority Council for approval next week.
The Ministry of Housing said in response that no decision had been made in the matter of purchases of public housing. Yesterday, Atias strongly denied Yacimovich's claims.
"It is a mendacious claim that there is a preference for families with children over the handicapped… There is no queue for the handicapped; all the money goes first to the handicapped, and no handicapped persons are waiting in line," said Atias. "The claim about preference for six children is cheap demagoguery. Since the budget is limited, we direct families with six or more children to small apartments and we buy four-room apartments for them, which rebuilds the inventory of small apartments for smaller families which have been waiting for almost a decade for public housing."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 23, 2012
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