The Ministry of Construction and Housing is promoting the first-ever roof agreement with the Elad municipality. Minister of Construction and Housing Yoav Galant announced late last week that work was proceeding on the agreement, which would include 12,500 new housing units in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) city, located near Rosh HaAyin and Petah Tikva. Galant added that roof agreements with the Ashdod and Nahariya municipalities were slated for signing in the near future.
The roof agreement and planned supply of housing units in it are likely to double Elad's current 45,000 population. The Ministry of the Interior boundaries committee has decided to establish a joint industrial zone for Elad and the Drom Hasharon Regional Council between Highway 444 and Highway 6. The industrial zone is slated to include 1.5 million square meters of commercial and industrial space, which is likely to support additional housing units.
The haredi public has suffered a several housing crisis in recent years, sometimes worse than among the general population. In contrast to the non-religious population, members of the haredi community are sometimes unable to live where they would like, due to considerations of Sabbath observance and the need to live in closed communities in certain cases.
According to figures from the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, which previously studied the housing problem in the haredi sector, 66% of the haredi population lives in 2-4 room apartments, while 667% of the rest of the Jewish population lives in apartments of 3.5 or more rooms. The figures also show that only 26% of the haredi sector lives in apartments with 4.5 or more rooms, while the proportion of the general population is 35%. According to the Haredi Institute, based on Central Bureau of Statistics figures, 24% of the haredi sector reported living in quarters with two or more people per room, compared with 2% of the general population.
"The roof agreement in Elad is an important breakthrough," Galant said. "Israel needs a million housing units in the next 20 years. 20% of these housing units have to be for the haredi sector. We recently established a section for haredi affairs, at the recommendation of the members of the haredi political parties. We have to solve the problems by building haredi cities, and by adding housing units in heterogeneous cities."
In 2016, the cabinet approved the first part of a new government program for increasing the supply of housing units in the haredi sector. According to the plan, the government plans to promote planning of 19,500 housing units and marketing of 15,000 housing units in haredi communities, or on sites defined classified as having a haredi orientation, in the next three years. Already at that time, the subject of making Elad larger was on the agenda, and is now getting a substantial boost from the roof agreement.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on July 23, 2017
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