‘Drastic’ housing solution unveiled

Netanyahu: "We are raising entire generations who live with their parents. What’s next? To live with grandma and grandpa?"

By LILACH WEISSMAN / GLOBES
Housing 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
Housing 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to submit to the cabinet on Sunday a new plan aimed at dealing with the housing shortage.
The plan includes the construction of thousands of housing units nationwide over the next 18 months, he told Globes “I have no illusions. There will be objections,” Netanyahu said. “Those who are not willing to go down this road don’t want to help the State of Israel. We are raising entire generations who live with their parents.
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What’s next? To live with grandma and grandpa? We must break this cycle.”
“We must take drastic action,” he said. “I am determined to undertake this reform. We don’t have years. I am sick of waiting. We won’t wait any more.”
Under Netanyahu’s plan, national housing commissions will be established to bypass the bureaucracy of local and regional planning and building commissions, and they will concentrate all decisions as a one-stop shop.
The new commissions will be set up for 18-month periods. They are intended to deal with the housing shortage, which currently stands at 100,000 apartments.
The reform was formulated together with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Attias. It will apply only to apartments in the housingstarts market above a certain, as yet undecided, nationwide level, including in-demand areas.
Netanyahu believes that when the 18-month period ends, legislation to reform the Israel Lands Authority, which is currently stuck in the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, will have been completed.
“We must close the gaps,” he said.
“A combination of reforms at the Israel Lands Authority and a road bypassing the planning commissions is the only way to deal with the housing shortage.”