News

The Municipality of Sidon, Engineer Mustafa Hijazi, participated in a consultative meeting held at the Ministry of Social Affairs to discuss the National Housing Strategy in Lebanon. The meeting was convened at the invitation of the Ministry of Social Affairs, under the auspices of Her Excellency Minister of Social Affairs Hanin El Sayed, and with the participation of the Director General of Housing, Mr. Rony Lahoud.

The Mayor was accompanied by Mr. Amer Maati, Head of the Reconstruction Committee at the Sidon Municipality, and Ms. Nadine Makari from the municipality's Technical Office. The meeting served as a dialogue within the consultative process aimed at developing a comprehensive national vision for housing that guarantees the right to decent housing, promotes social stability, and meets the requirements of recovery.

During the meeting, the Mayor of Sidon emphasized that the housing crisis is primarily an urban crisis. He welcomed the proposed roadmap as a necessary national step and stressed that the success of the national strategy remains contingent upon activating the role of municipalities as key partners in planning and implementation. He also called for municipalities to be used as a source of field data within a national housing database, for priority to be given to rehabilitating existing housing stock within cities rather than urban expansion, and for incentives to be linked to the reintroduction of vacant units into the market. He further stressed the need for municipalities to be formally involved in emergency housing programs and for clear and sustainable financing mechanisms to be secured to support local housing programs in partnership with municipalities.

In closing, Engineer Hijazi emphasized that any successful national approach to housing must be grounded in the realities of cities and the needs of their communities, particularly the most vulnerable groups.