Speech #1010175164

Common sense dictates that you dont wait for the flood to hit before you take steps to prevent damage. But that has not been the case in Israel. I was simply amazed to read last week that the housing situation is so serious that young Israelis are being forced to vacate their apartments for tents because landlords are charging rents that the Soviet Immigrants. with government subsidies. can afford but the young Israelis cannot. Even more incredible has been the fact that not one single unit of housing has been built specifically for new Soviet immigrants. that not one acre of the 93 percent of Israels land that is under government control has been made available for new housing. and that Israels new construction over the past 18 months is not enough to fulfill the demand for housing among Israelis. let alone that required by the more than 50.000 immigrants who have arrived there so far this year. The announcement this week that Israel will import 40.000 prefabricated homes for the Soviet immigrants is welcome news that will help to ease the strain that the immigrants arrival has produced. But Israel needs to do much more if both recently arrived immigrants and future immigrants are to have decent housing within a relatively short time of their arrival. Many of the problems affecting the provision of housing for the Soviet immigrants are an outgrowth of practices which have affected the Israeli housing sector for years. Israels housing scene is beset with poor policies that create terrible overpricing of land. long delays in getting needed construction permits. and enormous import fees. duties. taxes. and other charges. Cartels or monopolies unfairly control the supply of many building materials. I must tell my Israeli friends that it is time to change the way they are doing business. It is time to reform land policies so large amounts of land can be available at a fair price. and to put to rest the bureaucratic morass that produces so much mindless redtape that it can take an astounding 2 years or more to build an apartment house. It is time to lay aside the interparty politics that prevents such overdue moves as letting the Housing Ministry. which is responsible for constructing the homes the immigrants need. have oversight over the Israel Lands Authority. which controls the land on which those houses would be built. And it is time to end the influence of the special interests who want to stifle competition in the housing and construction sectors and maintain the current. hugely inefficient system that profits no one but themselves. Recently.