Photo by Tal DahanThe Coalition for Affordable Housing filed an administrative petition seeking judicial review of the Committees’ interpretation and implementation of the law.
The Coalition for Affordable Housing filed an administrative petition to the Jerusalem District Court today (23 May 2012), asking the court to require the Jerusalem District National Housing Committee to reconsider the plan to expand the city’s Malha neighborhood. The petitioners are asking the court, in a precedent-setting manner, to examine how National Housing Committees (NHCs) throughout the country are interpreting and implementing the provisions of the law regarding affordable housing. This, following the NHCs’ blatant disregard for their authority and responsibility to designate lands for affordable rental housing.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights, the Association for Distributive Justice, and Itach-Maaki: Women Lawyers for Social Justice, who are all members of the Coalition for Affordable Housing, filed this administrative petition this morning against the plan to establish 397 housing units in Malha. The petitioners asked the court to instruct the Jerusalem District NHC to designate lands in the plan for affordable rental housing and to set directives for prices, conditions, and eligible persons. The Coalition also asks that the size of the smallest housing units be set at no more than 75 square meters, as stipulated by the law.
The Law of Planning and Building Procedures for the Acceleration of Residential Construction (“The NHCs Law”) was proposed by the government as solution to the housing crisis in Israel. The law garnered harsh public criticism on the basis that that it fails to address the problems of different population groups and because of the concern that this law be used as a fast track to build homogeneous neighborhoods that will exclude poor families. As a result of this criticism, the law was changed and authorized the National Housing Committees to designate lands for affordable rental housing and to set rent prices, conditions, and eligible persons. The government and the chairman of the committee, MK Carmel Shama-Hacohen, pledged that these were substantial changes and not an empty attempt to silence public criticism.
However, 9 months after the enactment of the NHCs Law, the committees appear to be sweepingly disregarding these legal provisions concerning affordable housing. To the best of our knowledge, not a single NHC used its authority to designate affordable rental housing in any national housing plan. Similarly, in the formulation of the Malha expansion plan, the Jerusalem District NHC decided not to designate affordable rental housing – without any serious discussion of the matter.
According to attorney Gil Gan-Mor, Director of ACRI’s Right to Housing Program and member of the Coalition for Affordable Housing, “the public fought for social and distributive justice of state lands and for the right to affordable housing. The Knesset listened to the public and authorized the committees to set provisions for affordable housing, but the committees are ignoring this. In essence, the NHCs have stripped the law of its meaning.”
In light of this situation, the Coalition for Affordable Housing seeks a precedent-setting decision from the court – judicial review of the manner in which the committees are interpreting and applying the provisions of the law. As stated in the petition, “judicial review is required in light of the blatant disregard of the committee, and of all the other National Housing Committees in other districts, for their authority to designate land for affordable rental housing and for their obligation to act on this authority in a reasonable manner. This disregard contradicts the letter and meaning of the law and the intention of the Knesset.”
The petition (in Hebrew)
