Malé, Maldives – President of the Flat Committee Thoha Mohamed has said that many people who deserved the housing units were not selected due to shortage in apartment units.
The final list for the ‘Hiyaa’ Public Housing Scheme, which aims to amass 80,000 citizens to Hulhumale’, was publicized last night. A total of 14,107 applicants from various categories were unsucceful in securing a flat, while 6,142 of these individuals scored above 50 points, but were not selected to get an apartment unit.
The Hiyaa Project comprises the development of 7,000 flats, in the form of 16 towers of 25-storeys each, in reclaimed suburb Hulhumale’s second phase.
During a news conference held today, Thoha said that he is aware that a number of vulnerable families were not given housing units under this project. He further added the flat committee was assigned to ensure points were given to individuals in accordance to point guidelines established in 2018 by Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration.
He also stated that the flat committee prepared the final list after checking living conditions of all applicants following the same policies and guidelines. He further stated that not all of the people who were not able to get flats are undeserving of the flats.
Thoha disclosed that these people were not selected not because of their better living living conditions, but due the low number of available flats and that more than 23,000 people applied for the 6,720 flats, some applicants were bound to not get housing in their respective categories.
With the release of the final list of Hiyaa housing winners, some individuals who have previously received documentation of their flats during Yameen’s administration, have lost the units. The list has been met with public scrutiny, with many claiming that the flat committees point system is not justifiable.
The final lists has the following categories:
- H4 (Doctors and Nurses) – 233 flats
- H5 (Teachers) – 523 flats
- H6 (Single mothers) – 423 flats
- H7 category (Married people aged 18 – 40) – 805 flats
- H8 (Male’ Residents) – 1,837 flats
- H9 category (Male’ Dhaftharu) – 1,044
- H10 (Persons with Disabilities and Family) – 200 flats
- Civil Servants – 1,000 flats
The flat committee added that only those applicants who receive 50 percent or more from points allocated would be eligible to receive flats from the “Hiyaa” social housing project.
The committee noted that some categories have fewer recipients than the number of flats that have been allocated. The cabinet has since decided that those additional flats will be allocated under the H8 category for those registered to the Male’ Municipality Register in order top prioritize social housing from Hulhumale’ for those living in the Male’ area.
The government is currently planning housing projects in various regions of Maldives, with the most recent announcement regarding housing projects being that the Indian government company National Buildings Construction Company (NBCC) has been contracted to build 2,000 low cost housing units in Hulhumale’.
