The Ministry of Housing is currently working on a new system to resolve the housing crisis facing low-income groups by addressing the issue of skyrocketing residential rents. A group of international experts has been tasked by the ministry to work on the guidelines meant to tighten control over unjustified residential rents. The system also defines the relationship between all the parties concerned, such as the one between landlord and tenant. The system includes financial aid to investors who are planning to build residential units for low-income groups besides the enforcement of the housing allowance system linked to income through the “Housing Voucher System” currently in practice in the US. The American housing choice voucher program is the federal government's major program for assisting low-income families, the elderly and physically challenged to afford decent, safe housing with adequate sanitary facilities in the private sector. Since housing assistance is provided on behalf of the family or individual, those participating in the voucher program are able to find their own housing, including single-family homes, townhouses and apartments, Al-Madina Arabic daily quoted a senior official at the ministry as having said. A family that is issued a housing voucher is responsible for finding a suitable housing unit of the family's choice where the owner agrees to rent under the program. This unit may include the family's present residence. Rental units must meet minimum standards of health and safety, he said. In this case the Ministry of Housing has to pay a housing subsidy to the landlord directly on behalf of the participating family. The family then pays the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the amount subsidized by the program. The official said eligibility to the program is determined by the Ministry of Social Affairs in conjunction with the Ministry of Housing based on the total annual gross income and family size, adding that the ministry is the one which determines a payment standard that is the amount generally needed to rent a moderately-priced dwelling unit in the local housing market and that is used to calculate the amount of housing assistance a family will receive. He said a family which receives a housing voucher can select a unit with a rent below or above the payment standard. He added that these vouchers enable families to look for a housing unit and lease it in a specific housing complex or a residential unit owned by private investors pointing out that the housing voucher family must pay 30 percent of its adjusted gross income for rent, and if the unit rent is greater than the payment standard the family is required to pay the additional amount.
