Algeria: “Rehousing of 35 thousand families put off until further notice”

The planned rehousing of about 35 thousand needy families living in slums and shanty dwellings across the province of Algiers has been adjourned until further notice for myriads of reasons notably linked to the unavailability for the time being of sufficient newly-built housing units.

This delay in the delivery of this large number of promised new housing units in the capital Algiers will most probably touch off the disappointment and ire of the recipients who have been waiting for long years now to benefit from state- subsidized new housing programs.

The Wali or Governor of the province of Algiers, Abdelkader Zoukh, announced to this effect that the next re-housing operation in Algiers would only concern a first batch of 25 thousand needy families stressing that the other 35 thousand other accommodation-seeking families would follow suit as part of other housing programs.

 He indicated that these remaining 35 thousand families had to wait for rehousing in the next few years because of the current insufficiency of new housing units which are still in the process of being built in various parts of Algiers province, as he put it.

 Meanwhile, Echorouk has been told by some of the dismayed families who have been excluded from the ongoing rehousing endeavor that they won’t waver to stage widespread street protests to press for their long-standing claims.