Khaled Al-Solaiman
Okaz
Unemployment is no longer the most volatile or the much talked about issue. It has never been an issue that the jobs are hard to find. The issue has always been the type of available jobs that may be to the linking of our people.
However, lately the unemployment issue has taken a back seat giving way to a more important issue: the housing problem.
The citizen is not only unable to own a private house but can not even have the piece of land on which to build that house.
The situation of the citizen has further worsened to reach the level that he or she is not able to rent a house that will dissipate all their resources.
We have ignored the problem of accommodation for so long that it has today become insoluble. For many decades we did not debate this problem with a view to finding solutions to it.
Did we lack the future vision or was it the greed of the realtors that has made the price of land in our desert more expensive than a piece of land in Europe's most luxurious areas?
The government has given maximum priority to the problem of housing but the projects of the Ministry of Housing alone will not radically solve the problem. The demand for homes will grow and the ministry may find itself unable to keep pace.
The solution needs a brave initiative by the government that will include the private and the banking sectors who should help the citizen decide his/her own options.
They should work together to extend bank loans and credits to finance the housing projects and to satisfy the customer's need for personal loans.
The initiative of "land and loan" was a step in the right direction but a short one on a log road.
The house is today not just a building that may accommodate young men and women but is a shield that will protect them against falling prey to extremist ideas.
