Minister suspends public housing evictions
Yoav Galant ‘wants to learn and examine the issue’ over the next few weeks, says official
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Israel’s new Housing Minister Yoav Galant has ordered a freeze on evictions from public housing projects for a few weeks while he learns the issue, his office said Sunday.
No eviction orders can be implemented against residents of special housing projects owned by companies such as Amidar and Amigur until further notice.
“The minister wants to learn and examine the issue of evictions,” a source in Galant’s office told Army Radio Sunday. The freeze was temporary, the representative said.
“In the meantime, evictions are suspended. But in a few weeks, we will reach conclusions.”
Galant is No. 2 on the Kulanu party’s Knesset slate, which ran in the March election on a platform of lowering housing costs and improving the lot of Israel’s middle class and disadvantaged.
The public housing issue has divided lawmakers and poverty activists. The most recent State Comptroller report on the issue criticized the Housing Ministry for inefficient management of the state’s public housing reserves, noting that eligible families often wait many years for an apartment to become available, while families that lose their eligibility are often difficult to remove from the apartments.
Some activists and lawmakers have criticized the government for allowing the number of available public housing units to shrink over the years.
The Times of Israel Community.