JEDDAH, 3 May 2005 — Crown Prince Abdullah has allocated SR2 billion from the budget surplus to build low-cost housing units for the poor and needy in various parts of the Kingdom.
“The regions that are badly in need of such housing facilities will be given priority,” said Social Affairs Minister Abdul Mohsen Al-Akkas. The projects would be implemented in coordination with regional governorates, he added.
Al-Akkas said his ministry would conduct a survey of housing projects already established in various regions under the initiative of the respective governors. He said the ministry would provide financial support for such projects.
The minister hoped that the new social insurance law, which has been debated by the Shoura Council, would play a big role in fighting poverty in the country. “Out of 78 social insurance offices, 42 have been linked with a computer system,” he added.
According to a survey conducted by the Prince Abdullah Foundation for Housing, poverty exists in many parts of the Kingdom. In some areas of Qunfuda, a town on the Red Sea south of Jeddah, as many as 10 people live in a single room, the survey found.
Officials who conducted the survey blamed unemployment and inadequate social security allowances for the poverty. The officials noted a lack of infrastructure utility services, such as electricity, water, schools and roads, in Asfan and Laith in the Makkah region.
There are also dilapidated buildings and badly maintained houses in Al-Wajh in the Tabuk region. Poverty is rampant in bedouin areas of Baha which lacks roads to link many of its villages, the survey, carried by Al-Watan, said. Most of the poor in the Asir region live in the coastal areas and the eastern parts of the region.
In Jizan, people were found to be poor in the mountains and also in coastal areas, especially among fishermen, bedouins and shepherds. Despite its large industrial zone, many people in Yanbu are unemployed and poor, the survey found.
The government has launched a major campaign to eradicate poverty. Crown Prince Abdullah called for a national strategy to eliminate poverty after a surprise visit to a poor neighborhood in Riyadh in November 2002. The government later established a fund to fight poverty.
The Prince Abdullah Foundation, a charity established by the crown prince, has embarked on a project to build emergency housing units for the poor in six villages on the Kingdom’s western and eastern coasts.
The project includes Al-Shabaan and Al-Hasa villages in the Tabuk region, Al-Nabah village in the Madinah region, Al-Ghala village in the Makkah region, Al-Raas Birraith village in the Jizan region and Al-Juran village in the Eastern Province.
The Kingdom requires more than SR1 trillion to provide housing facilities for the growing number of citizens. The Real Estate Development Fund extends soft loans to Saudis to construct houses and real estate projects. According to a report issued by the fund, it received more than 40,000 loan applications for SR11 billion in 2002 and approved 9,000 applications for SR2.53 billion. In 2003, the fund approved 7,000 applications for SR2 billion.
