Housing shortage?
Shortage of apartments?
Say this to hundreds of young couples, some with children, who received two and a half years ago the good news of winning a price per occupant in Rosh HaAyin.
When former Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon boasted of the government's program to help young couples, Rosh HaAyin was one of his successful flagship projects in the center of the country.
8,800 apartments populate the eastern neighborhoods of the city with plans for 16,000 apartments.
From the center's largest land reserves.
Mayor Shalom Ben-Moshe is proud to hand over 10,000 apartments for occupancy.
It is clear that Rosh HaAyin is flooded with new apartments, so the Planning Administration made sure to check the transportation arrangements carefully before the new tenders, and they seemed quite satisfactory.
This is explicitly stated in the resolution: "Significant progress in transportation projects, most of which have been carried out or are in progress, allows for the addition of construction units."
But Rosh HaAyin city engineer Moshe Lorberbom writes in August to the frustrated tenants of the price: 'There is a barrier to issuing permits due to transportation conditions.
The Ministry of Housing that marketed the plots to developers and contractors approached the district committee and asked to release the restriction, but the committee refused.
The problem is parked between the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Transport.
The municipality is barred from issuing permits until the district committee approves them. '
The winners realize that their dream is receding, and in the meantime everything is paid for out of pocket: the rent, the nerves and the wait for the apartment.
The final price and also which apartment they will get in the end remained unknown.
All they have is a long queue number for a future apartment.
Those whose number is low have a higher chance of finding the apartment of their dreams.
The high numbers will compete for the remaining apartments.
Struggle for infrastructure
The absurdity is that in complex E, which is developed and populated with thousands of apartments, the municipality stops the last project in the neighborhood for no apparent reason - only 200 apartments left for the winners.
It seems that 200 young families have nothing to do with transport arrangements and traffic jams, other than pressure on the government to speed up budgets for transport infrastructure.
The entrepreneurial company Doron and Guy Levy did receive a permit for digging and excavation in the project in Complex E, which will be completed in about a month, but then the project will come to a deep standstill without a building permit.
In the larger C complex, the contractors did not accept this either.
"It makes a lot more sense to let the contractor build, complete the construction and delay an occupancy form in a few years, than not to get on the ground at all," the tenants say.
The municipality is conducting the infrastructure struggle with the Ministry of Transportation on the backs of the residents.
The goal: to expand the interchange at the entrance to the neighborhood.
Among the conditions that prevent construction: the construction of public transport routes, intersections and a new transport terminal.
The director of the municipality's registration and supervision department, Jonathan Sapir, writes: "The local committee is now prevented from issuing additional permits in the eastern neighborhoods by the district committee, due to transportation conditions in the NPA."
"There is no one to talk to"
The personal stories of the residents waiting for the apartment in Rosh HaAyin illustrate well the magnitude of the distress.
Michal Cohen from Ramat Gan, married + 3, pays NIS 4,600 a month in rent.
"Erase the profit and benefits I received at the price per occupant," she claims.
Dedi Balestro, married + 2 from Shaarei Tikva, won the Gindi lottery in Rosh HaAyin, but gave up after leaving only a penthouse with garden apartments for NIS 1.9 million, beyond his budget.
"Now I do not know how much money I will pay, because we have not yet chosen specific apartments," he says in frustration.
Yaniv and Shiran Bushari have been renting for more than 4 years and pay NIS 3,500 a month.
The two-year-old twins were already thinking of registering for kindergarten, after receiving a key to their new apartment, but that would not happen.
"We won the price per occupant in May 2019. Two and a half years have passed, and we are still waiting for a building permit.
We have a lot of expenses, we want to expedite the procedure, but there is no one to talk to.
Instead of paying a mortgage, we continue to pay rent. "
Liran, 36, and Karin, 34, have been married for 7 years with three small children: Alon, 5 and a half, Ariel, 4, and Adar, 7 months old.
"After more than 100 lotteries, we won in Netanya at the end of 2017. After waiting, we realized that the project was not progressing, so we decided to retire and try our luck again.
We signed up for the Rosh HaAyin raffle and won in May 2019.
"We pay NIS 5,250 a month in rent, and are exposed to the price increase every year.
We have multiple expenses: private garden, daycare, property tax, electricity, water and food.
Try to save even a little every month, but the situation is not simple.
Next year our eldest son is going up to first grade.
We had hoped to allow him to start school in his area of residence, but unfortunately this will not happen. '
About a year ago, the lottery winners received an orderly letter from the construction company explaining to them that this was a "failure to remove barriers between the municipality of Rosh HaAyin and the government ministries."
Frustrated residents were told that the expected delay lasts 4 years.
That is, a delay of 5 and a half years from the date of winning.
"The problem is not with us"
So what exactly is the problem?
An additional exit road from the Psagot Afek neighborhood is required, for which no permit has been issued by the Ministry of Transportation.
In the absence of a permit, the municipality of Rosh HaAyin is not willing to allow contractors to start carrying out the work.
But about six months ago, the opposition of the Ministry of Transportation, led by former Minister Miri Regev, herself a resident of Rosh HaAyin, was removed.
The ministry will even budget the construction of infrastructure.
The district committee approved only 500 housing units out of the 800 housing units, and only in complex E. Next to them are hundreds of winners waiting for residents of large complex C. " In the army, we work, and try to earn a decent living, to give our children a better future. "
The Rosh HaAyin municipality stated that the problem was not on their part.
Such a large number of apartments require transportation conditions, which prohibit the continuation of construction without the express instruction of the district committee.
The Ministry of Housing said that a meeting had been scheduled with the Ministry of Transportation, in an attempt to find a way to remove the barriers.
10,000 apartments stuck in Yavne
And not just in Rosh HaAyin: 10,000 apartments stuck in Yavne - also because of transportation accessibility.
The State Comptroller published a critique of the failure of the umbrella agreements, and Yavne found that one of the main reasons for not meeting the marketing goals was a lack of transportation infrastructure.
In August 2016, the government signed a roof agreement with Yavne for the construction of 15,600 apartments.
Construction of 10,000 apartments stuck due to a dispute between the Ministries of Finance, Transportation, the Israel Land Authority and the Israel Railways over the construction of two interchanges and the sinking of a NIS 1.5 billion railway.
The project is not progressing, and so far only 2,500 apartments can be marketed.
As a result, land for the construction of 26% of the apartments in the Yavneh roof agreement was marketed, and the stock of land available in the city ran out.