The Internal Affairs and Environment Committee will not pass Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s (Yesh Atid) National Housing law unless he adds a public housing component, committee Hadash MKs said on Monday. Hadash MKs hammered Lapid for not focusing enough on affordable and public housing in the law.

Rally for public housing in Jerusalem, November 2011 (Photo: Activestills)

“Affordable housing isn’t putting a family in a hole and saying here, this is cheap, it’s getting a proper, livable apartment with a price relative to the median,” said Hadash MK Hanna Swaid. Yesh Atid had made campaign promises on public housing that were absent from the plans, said Hadash MK Dov Khenin. “Your manifesto promised public housing, so where is it if not here?”

 The Forum for Public Housing demanded that 20% of new housing would be set aside for public housing, arguing that Europe countries set significantly larger sums aside for public and affordable housing. Vicky Vanunu, a representative from HaMa’abara, a Jerusalem forum for public housing, called the law “clumsy,” adding that efforts to confine public and affordable housing were unacceptable. Those who cannot afford housing can certainly not afford a car and other necessities to get by outside the cities, she argued. “What will be do in the periphery?” she asked. “I was born in Jerusalem. I want to be in Jerusalem.”