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Is Amidar a conflict of interest? The State of Israel is trampling public housing at its age - voila! Real estate

2022-11-27T17:50:51.102Z


On the complex of the absorption center in the Gila neighborhood in Jerusalem, which mainly houses elderly Ariris and new immigrants - the State of Israel plans to build 1,324 apartments, of which there is not a single public apartment


Visualization: the plan for the evacuation of buildings in the Gila reception center (photo: Oka Architects)

The Jerusalem District Committee approved the plan to vacate the construction of the Amidar company in the Gila reception center

, while completely ignoring the current residents of the complex, as well as the weakest and most neglected population in the complex that is not supported and experiences serious concerns about its future - the elderly, most of whom are Arari, and new immigrants.

In 2016, following the government's decision, the Amidar



company expanded its areas of activity and today, alongside its activities as a mortgage company, it also operates as a real estate developer.



Housing in 11 residential buildings, and to build in their place residential buildings that will contain 1,324 housing units in towers of up to 35 floors.

Gila public housing (photo: Public Housing Forum)

In a letter sent last night

, at the end of Shabbat, by the Public Housing Committee to the Director General of the Ministry of Construction and Housing, due to the intention of the "New Amidar" to find a developer for the complex - it is claimed that the mortgage company is acting in a complete conflict of interest and is preventing them from purchasing the apartments, while they are becoming more expensive and out of their reach.



"As a mortgage company, Amidar is obligated to work for the well-being of public housing residents and ensure that all their rights are preserved.

As an entrepreneur, Amidar wants to maximize the profit from the project.

These two goals do not fit together and even contradict each other," claim the tenants. Furthermore



, the tenants claim in the letter, about a loss of trust in the system: "We held 4 meetings with the parties related to the project, the Urban Renewal Authority, the Senior Property Division of your office and the Amidar company.

Unfortunately, these meetings did not advance us and led to a loss of trust in the system."



Amidar's response to the tenants' claims is later in the article.

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An obvious conflict of interest

The reception center is located in the Gila neighborhood in Jerusalem, and is bounded between Arieh Ben Eliezer and Vardinon streets.

This is a residential complex and public buildings built in the 1970s by the state to house new immigrants.

The complex includes 287 small and medium housing units in 11 residential buildings surrounding an area of ​​public buildings.



The new Amidar company, according to the company's website, "manages about 40,000 properties for the state, in over 17,000 buildings nationwide, with a significant portion of them scheduled to carry out urban renewal processes in the coming years."

This figure makes the new Amidar one of the largest real estate projects in the country.



This is a decision that places Amidar in a clear conflict of interest, according to the public housing board.

Its new roles, as a provider of apartments for the general public in Israel, and as a company that is measured according to economic parameters, stand in marked contrast to its traditional roles in the implementation of the welfare policy in Israel, as a provider of a roof over a roof for new immigrants and the underprivileged.

A conflict of interest between supporting the underprivileged, when the economic consideration is only secondary, and development driven primarily by economic considerations.



It is clear to everyone that once a eviction-build plan has been submitted, the value of the property climbs rapidly.

The residents of the public housing on the spot, who submitted applications to purchase the apartment, received appraiser estimates of unreasonable prices that cannot be purchased by public housing residents.


"Preventing the sale, freezing the sale and delaying the appraisals, all of these brought the tenants to a state of uncertainty regarding their rights to purchase their apartments as part of the sale procedures," the tenants claim.

Gila public housing (photo: Public Housing Forum)

"To our understanding," the tenants write about the transition period between eviction and construction,

"the project is planned without temporary housing outside the complex. As long as things proceed in this manner, we require an orderly and legally valid coordination with each of the public housing tenants regarding the transitions to the new apartment. To be safe, we They demand that the coordination also include reference to the case that temporary housing is required."



Furthermore, the tenants demand that "as part of the agreement, the following will be established for each tenant, while taking into account their needs, both in terms of accessibility and in terms of location: the location of the apartment that will be occupied while construction takes place, the location in the new project, the nature of the future rent payments, Amidar's responsibility for the costs which involve moving the apartments, transporting the contents of the apartment, disconnecting and connecting to gas, electricity and water and so on."

"The tenants will receive new apartments; all project profits will be reinvested in public housing in the periphery"

The Amidar company stated that

"in the complex he discovered hundreds of public housing apartments as well as hundreds of private apartments, all of which are old and in a poor state of maintenance. Amidar promoted on the site a housing development that allows for initiation, as well as one of the largest urban renewal programs in the State of Israel, where the existing tenants, both in public and private housing, They will receive new apartments that are significantly larger and more luxurious than the existing apartments, along with an addition of over 1000 housing units that will greatly contribute to the general housing crisis in the city of Jerusalem.

In addition to this, Amidar serves as an entrepreneur in the project and according to an unprecedented and unusual agreement between the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Finance from 2016, all the profits of the project will be reinvested in public housing in the periphery and will not enter the state's revenues."

  • Real estate

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  • Jerusalem

Source: walla

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