When our Lord was born in Bethlehem “there was no room” for him in the inn. (Lk 2:7) After two millennia of Christianity, estimates indicate that there are 150 million homeless people worldwide. It makes any person with a human heart and blood in his veins shudder on seeing such figures. We have become numb to this suffering.
The 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights refers to the right to housing and quality of living in this way: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family”. Does everyone really have this right, or is it a statement not worth the paper it is written on?
Figures speak loudly! According to last year’s Credit Suisse report, global household wealth has remained intact: the top one per cent of households globally own 43 per cent of all personal wealth, while the bottom 50 per cent own only one per cent. The top-tier one per cent of the world population are all millionaires in net wealth.
What is our political parties’ position in world fora on this global inequality? Has our Foreign Ministry become the lunga manus of the ministries of economy and commerce rather than giving priority to bring about greater equality, at least in line with its frequently publicly stated policies? I would be very happy to read any recent speech by a member on any side of the House on this horrendous problem.
Nearer to our home, during a recent conference it was stated that Malta has an estimated 300 homeless people, that is, people sleeping rough, in unsafe housing or in cars; an average of 191 homeless cases are helped by an NGO; and another 2,000 others “claimed” they are living in garages.
But in five years (2013 to 2018) the police received just 27 reports of people living rough. This conundrum was summed by one speaker who said “a substantial proportion of the homeless population is not accessible to researchers. Most are invisible... unseen”. How on earth can anyone have the gall to quantify what is not accessible?
A ‘blasphemous’ quote attributed to one of the speakers was: “The state has an obligation to prevent homelessness”. Give us a break please! Has anyone heard of ‘the welfare state’… or a civilised society?
The problem is not restricted to homelessness. There are many hardworking citizens who would like to own their own home or rent an accommodation. But they cannot afford it. This is caused by immoral land speculation, greedy ‘developers’ and the propertied class, lack of serious fiscal policy combined with a lack its serious enforcement, and a huge ‘income gap’. This is immoral and un-Christian.
In the last 10 years, the Housing Authority has leased 624 units from the private sector to lease them for social accommodation, and another 774 units that were vacated were reallocated. This is an average of 140 per annum. Seventy new social family accommodation units were built by the government, an average of seven accommodation units per annum.
On the other hand, as at last July, more than 1,600 promises of sale were registered, with a total value exceeding €330 million; this means that on average an apartment is sold at more than a quarter of a million euros.
There is still no room for Christ.
Fr Joe Inguanez, Sociologist, national chaplain, ŻgħaŻagħ Ħaddiema Nsara