Maspero Triangle returnees say govt demanding prohibitive utility fees, deposits to access new units
Courtesy: Cabinet Facebook page
 

A number of the residents of Maspero Triangle, who were displaced amid redevelopment plans on the condition they would be allowed to return to live in the area after its renovation, told Mada Masr that new costly fees are being demanded by the New Urban Communities Authority in order to receive their new housing units.

Households have been informed they must pay thousands of pounds in utility fees and maintenance deposits for each unit, in what the residents who spoke to Mada Masr perceived as “a process of pushing them away from returning to the area.”

The Maspero Triangle, an area of Bulaq in Cairo behind the Maspero state TV building, once housed over 4,000 families who lived in and owned their own self-built units. Since 2015, residents have been displaced from the area to make way for demolitions to facilitate government development projects, with some offered alternative housing an eastern Cairo suburb, and others promised they would be able to return.

The Housing Ministry announced on August 10 that the Cairo Governorate would soon make public the pathway for housing returnees to the area. Requirements were set to include fees to be paid by the area’s former residents within a month for installing water, gas and electricity meters. Those who completed the required documents would be allocated a unit of housing to be delivered a month later.

Ibrahim*, a resident of the area, told Mada Masr that 930 families received a notification last week from the urban communities authority that utilities meters would cost each household an up-front payment of LE13,500, in addition to a maintenance deposit of LE25,000 for a two-bedroom unit or LE31,000 for a three-bedroom. 

Those wishing to return to Maspero are also obliged to pay the difference in value between their old houses and the new residential units, which ranges between LE400,000 to LE700,000 payable in installments, according to a source from the urban authority who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity. 

Owners of two-bedroom units will have to pay LE600,000 in installments at a low rate of interest within 30 years, while owners of three-room units will have to pay LE750,000. 

The fees represent an obstacle to families returning to the Maspero Triangle that many believe to be intentionally prohibitive, said Ibrahim.

A neighborhood group, the Association of Youth and Residents of the Maspero Area, has been delegated to negotiate with the authority to reduce the sum being demanded for fees and utilities, and are arguing that they should be allowed to pay it in monthly installments. Ibrahim said that families would be completely unable to pay the sums demanded up front. 

Negotiations with the residents are already underway,  the urban communities authority source said, though they claimed that the fees for utilities, maintenance and finally the maintenance deposit represent only seven percent of the value of the units to be delivered to the returning residents. 

According to the source, the Maspero Triangle development project was led directly by the authority, which contracted with security, hygiene and maintenance companies to manage and maintain the residential facilities and is allocating the maintenance deposits’ money to pay for these services.


*Pseudonym

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