BAHRAINIS who earn below BD300 per month could get their dilapidated homes renovated or rebuilt by the Housing and Urban Planning Ministry free of charge under a Shura Council proposal.
Five Shura Council members, led by youth affairs committee vice-chairman Redha Monfardi, said it was the state’s responsibility to provide such assistance to Bahraini families in line with their constitutional right to a decent living.
Under the proposal, Shura members want the right to be stated in the first article of the 1976 Housing Law dealing with housing services, rights and privileges.
“The ministry provides housing services to Bahraini families based on their ability to repay the costs through instalments,” said Mr Monfardi.
“This means that low-income Bahrainis are robbed of their right to get housing service since their earnings and spending keep them out of the eligibility bracket,” he added.
“Thus underprivileged families continue to live in dilapidated homes that are unsafe and dangerous, while the state should be providing them with a dignified and decent living.”
Mr Monfardi, who is also a member of the Shura Council’s public utilities and environment affairs committee, said the maximum income has been chosen to ensure that the ministry’s finances don’t get stressed.
“We want low-income Bahrainis, earning below BD300 a month, to have their homes rebuilt or renovated for free,” he explained.
“The BD300 has been chosen to ensure that only families in desperate need are helped without exhausting the ministry’s budgets and ability to build new homes for families on the waiting lists.”
Housing and Urban Planning Minister Amna Al Romaihi earlier told Parliament that there were more than 57,000 Bahraini families on the waiting list.
The proposal will now be reviewed by the public utilities and environment affairs committee before being debated in October following the National Assembly’s four-and-a-half-month recess.
Repeated calls have gone out from the country’s three municipal councils and the Capital Trustees Board to help more than 4,000 families who can’t afford to rebuild or renovate their run-down homes.
They have been seeking a special allocation of government funds to rebuild run-down homes, some of them on the verge of collapse.
Owners of run-down homes were previously given grants by the Royal Charity Organisation (RCO) to fund refurbishment, but this was converted into a loan-based system in 2011 and transferred to the Housing and Urban Planning Ministry.
However, it has been alleged by councillors that many applicants are ineligible because they are aged over 50 or can’t repay for the government service.
Meanwhile, the Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry offers BD10,000 grants for remodelling, but councillors claimed that was not enough to carry out meaningful repairs on badly run-down properties.
They believe that the BD10,000 only covers the cost of one room as the Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry now only deals with Grade A contractors.
mohammed@gdnmedia.bh
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