The Knesset Finance Committee approved on Tuesday a 24 million shekel cut to rental housing subsidies for working families. The impetus for the cut came from the neo-liberal Finance Ministry, which asserted that the Housing and Construction Ministry’s 1.4 billion shekel rental housing subsidies budget “was excessive.” The budget for the program was expanded greatly following the 2011 social justice protests and the recommendations of the governmental Trajtenberg Committee to address socioeconomic problems in Israel.
Members of the Shabi family and activists protest for public housing and to show solidarity with the Shabi family, which was evicted from their house and now live in a park, in the city of Petach Tikva, July 23, 2013 (Photo: Activestills)
Activists from the Public Housing Forum that participated in the Knesset hearing criticized the move, saying that the eligibility criteria for rental housing subsidies were very restrictive. This, they said, led many working families to seek approval from exception committees, which are pressured by the treasury not to approve requests, creating the leftover funds. “We receive emergency requests from people and the Housing Ministry says it has no budget, so it is infuriating to hear about funds not being utilized,” said MK Dov Khenin (Hadash). He added that the Finance Ministry instructs the exceptions committees only to approve requests for aid that do not meet the regular criteria in “life and death” situations.
Despite the approval of the cut, the Finance Committee has scheduled two additional sessions to discuss public housing and rental housing subsidies. The first session will cover the criteria for housing aid. The second session will discuss the failure to replenish the stock of public housing with the funds received from the sale of public housing to occupants as part of a government program that began in 2000. According to the Knesset Research and Information Center, the sale of these properties raised $2.7 billion in revenue.
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