“We still have a dream to live in houses that make us feel like humans who have dignity,” said Rida Saleh, who lives with his family in a house previously used to shelter laborers in a summer resort area in Diryana city, 35 kilometers east of Behnghazi. Saleh, the provider of a family of five school-aged children, has a hard time making ends meet. “The amount of money I make at the end of each month is barely enough to provide food and clothes for the family. We want the new government to solve our problems in a way that really responds to our needs.” 

“We still have a dream to live in houses that make us feel like humans who have dignity,” said Rida Saleh, who lives with his family in a house previously used to shelter laborers in a summer resort area in Diryana city, 35 kilometers east of Behnghazi. Saleh, the provider of a family of five school-aged children, has a hard time making ends meet. “The amount of money I make at the end of each month is barely enough to provide food and clothes for the family. We want the new government to solve our problems in a way that really responds to our needs.” 

There are around 64 Libyan families, from the different parts of Libya, in the abandoned Diryana summer resort where people started arriving more than 10 years ago. The rooms are very small and inadequate for permanent housing for the families who seek shelter in this area.  To make matters worse, this coastal city has been suffering  from sharp decreases and shortages in the supply of drinking water over the last two decades.

Housing allowances

“The former regime, after forming a specialized committee, had issued an order to pay each family living in the Diryana resort an amount of 50 thousand dinars as housing allowances to be paid by the Savings and Real Estate Investment Bank,” said Saleh. “Unfortunately, we have not received these amounts and we are still waiting for the new government to re-activate the order.” 

“Soon, the winter season will start.  There will be wind, rain, and the sounds of thunder that will terrorizes our children,” said Saleh. “With electricity cut offs, things will even get worse.”

A copy of the 1010-7281 order, which Saleh still keeps and documents that the cabinet of the former regime had issued a decision to pay people living in the slums, specifically those who live in the Diryana area, housing allowances to be paid by the Saving Bank.  However, these families are still waiting.

In 2010, families living in the Diryana resort area organized many protests demanding the government provide them with adequate housing. This led the government to implement a social survey to assess the living conditions of the people through forming a commission by the Ministry of Social Affairs at the time, but the revolution disrupted the implementation.

The salaries are not enough!

Wanees Mustafa is also the head of a family living in this resort area.  He provides for his six family members in a house with cracks in the ceilings and walls. “This is not a house. Rain water is leaking through these cracks and the government is doing nothing for us!”

Mustafa is a policeman in one of the many security apparatuses in Libya and his salary is barely enough to cover his daily expenses and the necessities of his family, he said.

“The situation has become unbearable and our children cannot live under these conditions any more. These houses lack all necessary services.  There are no sewage pipes, no water and no electricity,” said Mustafa. 

As dire as the situation in Diryana is, there are still people from Benghazi who go there because rents in their cities are very expensive. Sallah Ed-Din Zada, who is newly married, complained about his living conditions saying “What can I do?  I have very difficult financial conditions and rents are very high. That is why I left Benghazi and came here. My whole salary is not enough to pay Benghazi rents.”

Diryana is just one example of slum areas growing in size and number every day in the vicinity of major cities. It reflects the housing crisis suffered by most Libyans and the difficult living conditions of hundreds of Libyan families who live in slums in different parts of the country.

The final report

Adam al-Hasi, the head of the Saving and Investment Bank, al-Marj branch, who confirmed that the bank had formed a committee under the resolution. “The revolution in Libya did not allow the committee to complete the final report and until now the Bank has not received the committee’s final report.” 

“After the revolution, all things related to slum areas were referred to the Ministry of Social Affairs, which is now the authority tasked with the payment of the allowances. I believe that the ministry will start to conduct social surveys on slum dwellers soon.”

“The former Gaddafi government burdened the bank with its waste basket and ordered it to pay housing allowances and rents for families who are not able to provide themselves with housing.” 

An alternative solution

Now, according to al-Hasi, the bank does not have the right to spend the money and cannot take the responsibility of anything related to the issue. The budgets allocated for this issue haven’t been transferred to the Bank by the government.” 

Al-Hasi revealed that the interim government issued a decision on the granting of real estate and housing loans for Libyans in the value of 150 thousand dinars for each loan, on the condition that the borrower submits a license for the piece of land he wants to build on. However, because of the closure of the institution’s offices, and because it is not practicing its work, the bank couldn’t give any loans for borrowers.

“We are still waiting to the Real Estate Institution to proceed with it work so that each borrower can obtain a certificate of the piece of land he wants to build on. When this happens, the bank will start giving loans.”

A closed institution 

According to Ali al-Hadi al-Tayeb, the head of the Real Estate Registration Committee, the offices of the Real Estate Registration are closed “because of the Transitional National Council’s former decision No. 102 of the year 2011, which ordered the suspension of the real estate work and the documentation of all actions. It only allowed some work of purely administrative nature and the collection of public money for the rental of public places.”

“The prime minister of the interim government issued a circular against the use of forms and documents that carry the slogans of the Gaddafi regime”, which caused delays in many transactions until the issuance of the new forms.

He also confirmed that the institution has changed the forms as stipulated in Article 70 of Executive Instructions No. 17 of 2010 regarding real estate registration, and referred them to the Prime Minister through the Minister of Justice. “The new forms were approved and the institution is now waiting for the decision of the prime ministry in order to start distribution,” he added.

Between the decisions taken by the pre-revolution government, which were suspended by new decisions, the Libyan citizens want to see an end to the bureaucratic procedures which negatively impact every aspect of their lives as the people of Diryana continue to dream of a solution to their unresolved housing problems.