The General Secretary of AKEL tour in Limassol wi8thin the framework of AKEL’s ongoing “Housing For All” campaign

 

20 May 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou, during his tour of Limassol today, engaged in discussions with citizens on the Housing issue.

Talking to young people at the ‘Houzouri’ Coffee Bar, S.Stefanou stressed the dilemma that young people in Cyprus face today, namely choosing between acquiring a home or having a family. “It is difficult to create a family, let alone acquire a home,” he noted. “We are carrying out this campaign on housing,” said the General Secretary of AKEL, “because where there are problems, there must be solutions.”

“AKEL, with the campaign it is waging, is pointing out proposals and options that we can create for young people,” Stefanos Stefanou said.

“The big issue at stake”, the General Secretary of AKEL stressed, “is how to help young people acquire a home.” S.Stefanou noted that the primary priority issues are to create a stock of affordable housing and to secure funding for the acquisition of housing.

“From research we have conducted, we have found that there is no affordable housing stock. This is where the state needs to intervene.”

The General Secretary of AKEL noted that on these matters the two public organisations, the Cyprus Land Development Corporation and the Housing Development Agency, have a role to play in this direction. “AKEL proposes the transformation of the Land Development Corporation into a central body of state policy on housing,” he said. At the same time, he noted, “the Housing Development Agency, must return to its social role in order to be able to offer specialised projects and programmes to help young people get housing.”

Earlier, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of AKEL, Stefanos Stefanou, together with George T. Georgiou, AKEL Limassol District Secretary and AKEL MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Refugees, Nikos Kettiros, paid a visit to the Pano Polemidia Settlement for the 1974 refugees. During the visit, they discussed with residents both the housing issues the refugee population face, as well as the specific problems the Pano Polemidia (Karmiotissa) refugee settlement face.