Last update - 00:00 24/12/2006
Proposal would end 'Project Renewal' in 65 communities
By Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent
Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit will submit for cabinet approval on Sunday a decision to cancel the neighborhood rehabilitation program Project Renewal in some 65 of the 100 neighborhoods in which it was implemented.
Opponents of the move say it means the end of 25 years of social commitment on the part of successive governments to socio-economically distressed neighborhoods like Katamon Het and Tet in Jerusalem; Hatikva and Kfar Shalem in Tel Aviv; Wadi Nisnas and Halisa in Haifa and neighborhoods in Bat Yam, Eilat, Be'er Sheva, and other locales.
The project will be canceled in neighborhoods the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) rated as 7 to 10, considered socio-economically good, according to such elements as income and unemployment levels.
It will also be canceled in neighborhoods with ratings between 5 and 6, in which either physical or social rehabilitation programs are operating - but not both. Neighborhoods in cities of over 200,000 residents, which have a CBS rating of 6 and above, will also be removed from the program.
The proposal regarding these locales is actually a five-year suspension of the program, which has been in operation since the 1970s. But the Housing and Construction Ministry concedes that there is no chance of renewed funding. Due to budgetary constraints, the ministry has decided to focus on 37 particularly weak neighborhoods, including Beit Safafa in Jerusalem, old Beit Shemesh, areas of Lod, Ramla, Yeruham, Acre, Bnai Brak, Rahat, Tel Sheva, Jisr al-Zarqa, and others.
"Abolishing the project will condemn these neighborhoods to wallow in their wretchedness," MK Ran Cohen (Meretz) who served in the past as deputy housing minister, wrote over the weekend to the Labor ministers and to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Residents of some of the neighborhood, together with the social action organization Shatil, are planning protests against the decision, arguing that the CBS statistics do not reflect the situation facing most residents, and that the Project Renewal budgets serve as leverage to raise other funds for projects like learning centers and programs for new immigrants.