What was missed

The Times of Malta’s leader of March 14, about the issue of the need for a national strategy to help the homeless, discusses many facets of this most important issue, but regrettably leaves out what is an essential basic facet of the problem, viz that of the currently prevalent mindset regarding the whole concept of property ownership.

Nobody in this country, it seems, is prepared to challenge the current biased (i.e. practically totally in favour of “owners”) way of arguing about the concept of what property owners can, or cannot, do with what they call their “own”.

I still wait with bated breath for a local court judgment which clearly states that nobody, under whatever circumstance, can throw people, renters, unemployed, social assistance dependents, whatever, out into the street simply because they cannot afford to pay the rent which is being asked by the “owners”.

That government has come forward to practically say to local band clubs “Don’t worry guys, we’ll pay the new whopping price, or rent, being asked from you for your premises, or for the rent, ourselves” is symptomatic of the mental confusion which runs amok. Band clubs yes, to all home occupiers no… or close to.

Property prices are out of reach for many.

Let no one dare mention decisions of the local courts or even of the CJEU on this matter. They too have let loose a plethora of judgments which in essence continue to serve or favour nobody but property owners. And this very often because the underlying motivations clearly come over as more concerned with ensuring either that “owners be not precluded from enjoying [sic] the fruits of their ownership”, or that the lines and tenets of that other new modern god, i.e. the holy “market value”, continue to be given prevalence in such judgments.

Malta’s builders, and speculators, plus the economic planners and decisions-makers, have ensured that property prices, on both the sale and rental fronts, have risen and continue to rise at obscene rates.

This week I was speaking to a young, engaged couple, both very young, clever recently graduated lawyers. To buy their first home, a decent medium-sized two-bedroomed apartment, they have been asked for a whopping €400,000, which, despite their joint incomes and even with whatever government grants can go their way, practically means that they will have to work a big chunk of their lives to pay off debt.

Just imagine what the unemployed, the poorest of homeless, those ekeing out a life in poverty, many disabled, many involved with serious medical or psychiatric or family break-up issues, etc., have to face.

No… there simply is no justice to favour the homeless in this area of life in Malta, and I am very angry with where we, as a nation, have ended up on this specific issue.

There is, yes, a group or lobbies of people who are indeed making hay while this situation is on. There is so much that an honest government can do to drastically clip the wings of these groups, but there simply is no political will.

John Consiglio – Birkirkara