Thousands of slum-dwellers moved to social housing units

CAIRO - 27 May 2019: The Cairo Governorate Municipal Authority is moving 1,500 families from new and old Hekr Al Sakakiny slum areas to Mahrousa 1 neighborhood, demolishing unlicensed houses and huts in Tereat Al Tawarei.

Hekr Al Sakakiny is located in Sharabeya neighborhood northern Cairo. The number of residents evacuated from the old and new areas are respectively 750 and 800. They are moving to units in the social housing project called Mahrousa 1 located in Salam 2 neighborhood. The new apartments are furnished and equipped with all essential home appliances. The authority demolishes the unlicensed buildings in Hekr Al Sakakiny after the residents move out.

As for Tereat Al Tawarei area located eastern Cairo, the authority removed 400 huts and 400 buildings whose dwellers were granted fully furnished apartments in nearby Ahalina 1 social housing project.

Mahrousa 1

The project consists of 4,900 residential units as well as shops, and administrative units. It is constructed over 60 feddans. The breakdown is 34.7 feddans for buildings, 14.2 for facilities, 8.4 for roads, and 2.7 for greenery.

Ahalina 1

The project is executed by the Higher Command of the Central Military Region, Cairo governorate, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), and Ain Shams University. The value of the project is LE365 million. Forty-six percent of the cost is covered by donations, while the rest is funded by NBE.

The project includes schools having a total of 120 classrooms, a medical center, and a mosque.
Basements will be used as fashion workshops to create jobs for women.

Both neighborhoods were inaugurated by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in December. The state aims at eliminating all slums across the country by the end of this year as it cleared 80 percent of 351 areas belonging in that category last year. In parallel, dwellers were granted free fully furnished units in social housing projects. The president stated that the cost of furnishing apartments in such new neighborhoods is LE 6 billion.

In May 2016, President Sisi promised to move all those living in slums to new flats over 3 years as part of an ambitious project expected to cost about LE 14 billion ($790 million).

In the same context, the Tahya Misr (Long Live Egypt) Fund, launched by Sisi in 2014, has been working on a three-phase strategy to eliminate Egypt’s shantytowns and re-house slum residents, including those living in Doueyka, Establ Antar and Ezbet Khair Allah. The project includes 15,000 housing units to re-house 60,000 slum residents. The first two phases of Tahya Misr are comprised of 12,000 flats. The third phase opened in 2017 and is comprised of 20,000 flats.