Samuel Atta Akyea
The National Tenants Union of Ghana has appealed to the government to remain committed to initiating concrete policies on social housing to allow majority of Ghanaians who are low-income earners acquire befitting place of habitation.
According to them, housing alternatives were needed urgently in the country in order to ease economic hardships associated with renting of private houses which are exorbitant, especially amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement released to mark International Tenants Day which is marked on the first Monday of October, the union stated that access to housing was a human right and a source of dignity for all people including the haves and the have nots.
It has, therefore, appealed to government to, among other things, introduce an emergency bye-law to put a moratorium on all evictions by landlords and property owners, announce relief package to provide financial rent assistance to tenants and also roll out policies to increase social housing and the supply of low-income housing for the urban poor.
The union commended President Akufo-Addo for “his magnanimity in providing free water and absorbing 50 per cent of electricity bills for all residential tenants, and at large households to alleviate the untold hardship that the novel coronavirus has brought upon us.”
We also thank the housing ministry for committing to provide direct financial assistance to tenants who need financial support to settle their indebtedness on rents to their landlords provided the hardship is as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Issah Mohammed