Accompanied by rabbonim and entrepreneurs, Housing Minister (Bayit Yehudi) Uri Ariel visited a housing project designated for the chareidi tzibur in Givat Ze’ev. Promising to harness the resources of his office, the minister added “This is an appropriate solution for the chareidi tzibur and I will work towards addressing the problems faced by my office.
The visit to the site with senior officials in the ministry, developers, rabbonim and askanim took place last week as part of Ariel’s commitment to work to advance the issues facing all communities in the country, not just his dati leumi community. Ariel heard of the concerns regarding the appearance and development of the overall community and he promised to do his best to obtain funds to address these issues. He explained that he is keenly aware of the critical housing shortage and the need to continue building.
Ariel also visited Ramat Givat Ze’ev Gimmel, a project which targets N. American immigrants, a community that recently received the required approval to construct 400 housing units. The master plan includes the public buildings and infrastructure that will meet the expectations of the American olim. The developer, Chish Nofei Yisrael, which organized the walking tour with the minister, is developing the new community for the olim, reporting the standards will meet the most scrutinizing new immigrant.
Ariel pointed out that as is the case with other sectors, the chareidim must address the critical nationwide housing shortage.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
That’s nice. But doesn’t mean much since all new projects have been frozen for over 6 MONTHS
“…standards will meet the most scrutinizing new immigrant”
However the biggest shortage is for people with limited incomes and diminished economic prospects (since they are shut out of the most lucrative parts of the Israeli economy). Catering to rich immigrants doesn’t solve any housing shortage. Furthermore, the bulk of the Israeli legal establishment will object to any “nice” developments aimed at hareidim.
G”Z Hachadasha is not a new project and it’s definitely not frozen. Over 100 units currently in the building process. Prices in the neighborhood started out low, but due to its relative proximity compared to other chareidi neighborhoods like Beit Shemesh, Kiryat Sefer or Beitar, the prices have almost doubled in less than 5 years since the project started being built. RG”Z will take time to build and it’s not clear how connected to G”Z Hachadasha it will be other than neighbors.