Action for Housing have issued a statement in response to comments by the Minister for Housing regarding allocations at Alameda Estate.

A statement from Action for Housing follows below:

As reported by GBC on Friday 1st August, the Minister for Housing stated that two sitting tenants who had been renting in private housing were rehoused at Alameda Estate. Ms Orfila explained that this happened following an agreement between herself and a private landlord and because the two tenants were ‘high’ on the housing waiting list.

In an Action for Housing press release on 6 November 2024 we revealed that the Ministry of Housing, under direct instruction from the Minister for Housing Pat Orfila, had handed two vacant government flats at Alameda Estate to a private landlord. It later transpired that the number of flats was four instead of two. This came under an agreement by which the landlord would repair these government-owned flats at his own expense to then rehouse his own sitting tenants in them. His dilapidated property would then be free of sitting tenants which would enable him to renovate it for the very lucrative open market. This alarming agreement raised several important issues which we mentioned at the time.

Action for Housing challenges Minister Orfila on this matter. She confirmed that these two sitting tenants were high on the housing waiting list, however,  we have information to prove that what the Minister said was not correct. One of these two tenants was 16th on the waiting list. Not at the top by any means and quite low on the list which by present normal waiting time standards would have taken them a few years to reach the top. Instead, he was allowed to jump the queue, thus making a mockery of the much-trumpeted policy of fair allocations through chronological order.