"Our building is old and dangerous and the 'construction evacuation' continues to be delayed

(haipo) - Residents of the Shaar Aliya neighborhood in Haifa have been waiting for a long time to receive permission to carry out construction evacuation in their residential building. During the period, the tenants claim, the municipality demanded that they renovate the building, due to its danger. But according to them, this is a nonsensical request, since there is no point in investing money in a building that is going to be destroyed anyway, even if it is not clear when approval will be received for it.

Alongside this, last week, on Sunday night, 06/10/2024, a missile fired from Lebanon fell very close to the Shaar Aliya neighborhood and many houses in the neighborhood were damaged. The residents claim that it would have been much easier for them to deal with the threats if the project had already been prepared, and they could have entered the apartments when alarms sounded.

'Pinoy Binui' is an urban renewal project, in which an old building is demolished and a new residential building is erected in its place. To start such a project, signatures of 66% of the building's residents are needed. At the end of the project, the apartment owners receive new apartments according to the latest construction standards (which today, as we know, include MMD in each apartment) according to the conditions signed between them and the developer in the agreement.

Waiting for approval for the 'Evacuation and Construction' project

Ilana Arieli has been living in the Shaar Aliya neighborhood for decades and is waiting for the approval to build a new building in the place of the building where she lives. "I have lived in Shaar Aliya for 50 years, our neighborhood is moving towards urban renewal. We have been dealing with contractors and entrepreneurs and also with the municipality for over 15 years. For the last 4 years we have been working with a developer and with lawyers and submitted plans to the municipality.

During the term of the previous mayor, Einat Kalish Rotem, I called her when there was the terrible earthquake in Turkey, and I asked her what she intended to do, and she said that she ordered all the teams in the municipality to carry out inspections of the buildings in all the neighborhoods.

Our building is very old and its condition puts us at risk, the pillars of our building are dangerous. We received an order from the municipality to take care of the building immediately, but the problem is that the socioeconomic level in the neighborhood is low. People can't afford to fix everything that breaks down in a building. I don't understand, we have a developer and a contractor, we have signatures from all the tenants, but the municipality has been dragging us along for years with all kinds of excuses.

3 months ago there was a meeting with entrepreneurs at the Sami Ofer Stadium. The entrepreneurs were in the morning and the residents in the afternoon. When the residents got angry because there was no meaning to our meeting, they closed the conference and did not give us the opportunity to express our pain and frustration."

"It was important to the mayor to fix the traffic circle. What about us?"

"Last Sunday, 6/10/24, two missiles fell in the Shaar Aliya neighborhood," Arieli recalls. "The residents of the buildings near the place of the impact were evacuated by the municipality to hotels. The windows of the buildings were shattered, apartments were destroyed.

Also at our gate, windows were broken, curtains fell, fragments of stones flew into the interior of the apartments through the windows... but the mayor had an urgent need to bring his teams to repair the traffic circle. What about the people? What about our soul? Lucky that we entered the entrance of the shelter when the first rocket arrived. We started crying and shouted "Shema Israel" all of us. We haven't had time to recover yet and another rocket fell at the level of the President. Yahav wants to show that he is restoring everything quickly, but what about our mental state?"

"Our houses are on chicken's knees"

Arieli does not understand why they are not allowed to build a new building that will protect the tenants as much as possible in the face of the dangers in the area. Instead, they ask people whose hands do not reach to invest large sums in a building that will eventually be demolished anyway and a new building will be built in its place.

"We stayed to live at home. We have no choice. Because of the damage caused to the apartment, I call property tax dozens of times a day, but I can't get hold of them. When I call the municipality, they tell me to call property tax. I ask, how long will we continue to suffer from earthquakes and bulldozers, in time That our houses are on chicken's knees? Every time we complain about something in the building, they tell us that the building is dangerous. Our contractor would like to start work tomorrow, but we are repeatedly asked to repair the building for tens of thousands of shekels They've been wanting to do a construction evacuation here for a long time."

Haifa Municipality's response:

To date, no plan documents have been submitted to the Haifa Municipality for the complex that includes 21 HaTzel St. and therefore it is not possible to promote urban renewal in this complex. The Haifa Municipality considers it of utmost importance and is rapidly promoting renewal plans in the coastal neighborhoods. After the plan documents are submitted by the developer - The local committee will be able to promote the plan as it does with regard to another revitalization plan submitted in the neighborhood by the developer. It should be emphasized that the municipality approves permits submitted by apartment owners to build MMDs also in urban renewal complexes that are in the planning.