Over the course of the year, the Shatil-coordinated Forum for Public Housing has been intensively lobbying politicians from across the political spectrum in an effort to ensure that public housing is a central component of the incoming government’s agenda.

This week those efforts started to pay off. The recently signed coalition agreements with the Mizrachi Shas and centrist Kulanu parties contained a clear commitment to build 700 public housing units, or designate a minimum of 5% of units to be built for public housing (whichever amount is greater).

Activists of the Public Housing Forum, trained by Shatil, were in constant touch with key members of the Shas and Kulanu parties, and held several public events prior to the elections in order to highlight the need for any party claiming to represent social-welfare values to advance the issue of public housing.

“We welcome this development that finally there is an initiative to rehabilitate public housing” said Shatil policy expert Danny Gigi. “The coalition agreements providing for public housing are a direct result of our connection and advocacy work. It is clear that there is much work left to do, to make sure that these provisions are indeed implemented, and to add new measures, but this surely represents a big leap forward.”