Returning to Malta after a twenty one year absence has completely shaken me from top to bottom, right to left, all sorts of infinite directions...  It has probably been the most significant event in my not quite uneventful life. 

​​I set up my first household – work, bills, mortgage, furniture, cleaning, cooking, decorating, general housekeeping – in London when I was 22 years old.  When I was 26 years old, I was a single parent commuting to the University of Greenwich 1 hour 40 minutes away.  That’s 3 hours and 20 minutes on the tube and the train every day.  Life was challenging but I seemed to be able to meet those challenges successfully.  I grew and increasingly felt that I was achieving, living, even thriving.

Watching Chris Fearne’s interview by Tim Sebastian crystallized for me the feeling of Salvador Dali and Kafkaesque surreality I have experienced since returning to Malta in 2010.  It’s like there’s the normal world and then there’s Malta.  Tim Sebastian cut through to the chase with his usual surgical precision.  Contrary to what normally happens when a Maltese politician is interviewed, Tim Sebastian was instantly aware of the implications of what Dr Fearne was saying.  His eyes did not glaze over; he did not nod his head and move on to the next question.  Tim Sebastian understood the parallel dimension that is our Malta.  The cotton wool is falling away from the eyes of the rest of the world, whether we like it or not. 

For years I have silently, and not so silently, screamed at the nonsensical utterances of various people in high office and their brazen complacent sitting in office whilst not achieving much.  They are certainly not serving the public even though it is the public that pays their salaries. 

Seven years later and the basic mundane business of living still dominates our lives.  Four and a half years later, we are still fighting for the right of tenants to have access to the correct utility tariff for people living in their primary residence.  On the plus side, there is progress on the situation of the private rental market, although it will be a few years yet before we see any concrete improvement in the lot of the private tenant.  Seven years later, I’ve had to start legal proceedings to get the state to pay me the 20 000 euro or so back payments in salary it owes me. 

Much of my energy is taken up by these battles.  So, of course there are opportunity costs.  In the UK, all my energy went towards my family, my job, living.  Here, it’s a different kettle of fish altogether.  Here, you have to fight to have basic things like equal pay for equal work or the right to be the account holder of your utility bill and on the correct tariff.  So many more battles I could fight but I have to draw a line somewhere. 

Recently I’ve been asking myself questions like these:  Am I wrong to compare my experiences of life in the UK with those in Malta?  Why don’t I just nod my head to all the nonsense and try to circumvent the surreality? 

Or should I maybe understand that fighting for the mundane, everyday stuff for the ordinary mortal is not that mundane after all?  Should I embrace these battles as my opportunity to do something worthwhile for my family and my country?  What are my children learning as they observe my efforts?    

Malta is not divided into clear cut socioeconomic groups.  This was driven home to me when the Caritas report on poverty was published in 2016. 

This reported that, for a family of four living in social housing, at a cost of about 200 euro per year, the minimum income required to live a basic life was 953 euro per month.  At social housing costs of 17 euro per month, the income after housing costs is therefore 936 euro per month for this group of people.  Any family of four in this situation is paying 1.8% of their income on housing costs.

Contrast that with my family's situation of 2010 and the situation of many living in Malta.  Pensioners on 420 euro or so a month, minimum wage earners on about 720 euro per month, average wage earners on about 1 000 euro per month, the unemployed, the unable to work…  If any of the people in these income groups are tenants in the private rental sector, then their income after housing costs is pitiful.  Currently, rents begin at 500 euro per month.  So, as you can see, a sizeable number of tenants - remember that the average wage is about 18 000 euro per year before tax and NI (about 1000 euro per month after tax and NI) – are paying impossible proportions of > 70% of their income on housing costs.  They are living on their savings, on loans, on charity... 

In Malta we largely don’t have a problem of homeless people on the streets.  But please don’t kid yourself that we don’t have a serious problem of homelessness.  This is how Shelter Scotland defines homelessness: 

“The definition of homelessness means not having a home. You don't have to be living on the street to be homeless - even if you have a roof over your head you can still be without a home. This may be because you don't have any rights to stay where you live or your home is unsuitable for you.”

It doesn’t take much imagination to understand that, right at this very moment, we have single parents living in 1 bedroom with their children in their parents’ family home.  Or people having to put up with an abusive home situation because they have no option – they cannot set up home on their own because they cannot afford the impossible rents.  Or pensioners having to do without essentials or cooling or heating so that they can pay the rent. 

Contrast the situation of tenants in the post 1995 private rental market with tenants in the pre 1995 private rental market and it is clear that of all three sectors, it is the tenants who signed contracts post 1995 that have it extremely bad.

Dr Kurt Xerri wrote about this in his article ‘Rentals not fit for purpose’ (TOM, February 2015).  He describes how

“nine per cent of the total occupied housing stock (almost 14, 000 households) is composed of protected tenants whose legal entitlement to remain in occupation of their dwellings at disproportionately low rents is becoming increasingly questionable in each European Court of Human Rights judgement delivered against Malta.”

Pre 1995 protected tenants and social housing tenants pay in a year less than what post 1995 tenants pay in a month.  This is just not tenable.

This is a politically sensitive issue.  Some pre 1995 landlords are living in poverty themselves whilst their tenants pay them 200 euro per year in rent.  Or they would like to help their children get on the first rung of the property ladder and are not able to.  Not all people currently living in social housing need to have their housing costs subsidized by the state.  What happens to this group’s entitlement to social housing once they have got back on their feet?  Does an entitlement to social housing decades ago mean an entitlement to social housing for life? 

These are important questions that the state needs to look at with regard to solving the housing crisis. 
And please, I don’t want to be misunderstood.  I am not advocating increasing the pre 1995 rents to market rents overnight.  I am also not advocating evicting social housing tenants if it is deemed that they are able to afford market rents. 

Instead I’m advocating looking at housing holistically.  We need to be coherent, considered and most of all courageous in our vision for Maltese housing policy. 

It is a huge pity that this foreseeable housing crisis was not tackled years ago.  The problem has compounded and become more complex, thus making the range of solutions more problematic. 
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The Parliamentary Secretary for social accommodation, Roderick Galdes has a huge challenge on his hands.  Speaking for myself, I think the White Paper proposals are a good beginning.  But more will have to be done.  Most importantly, all three sectors have to be looked at.