Zawaya

Envision a new development and put an end to corruption

By: Baya Gacemi

While homelessness is continuously increasing all over the world, the situation is getting even worse in Algeria.
During the 1970s and 1980s, when beggars and homeless people were swarming the streets of Moroccan cities, Algeria was boasting about being spared this problem. As a matter of fact, until that point in time, institutional and family structures were still playing their role thanks to the stable and consistent State. During the 1990s, however, the country witnessed a period of heightened violence that dismantled all pillars of both society and the State, leaving the former entirely to itself. Consequently, crowds of peasants started fleeing the countryside that was controlled by armed Islamist groups, to flood the cities, especially Algiers.
And that’s when an unprecedented phenomenon emerged, which is that of entire families (women, men, and children) sleeping on the streets, including main streets and affluent neighborhoods of the capital. The political authorities that were busy saving the remnants of the State and the regime, reacted rather belatedly to this problem. Homelessness was then added to the housing crisis that had already existed for decades. Therefore, addressing homelessness by taking care of children, or women, or old people only would actually be the worst thing to do, because it would just fill in small gaps without actually solving the entire problem, since the issue concerns both society as a whole, and the family that lies at its base.
According to experts (city planners, architects, and others…), we should first wonder whether there is a land use policy. Obviously, there isn’t. Ever since Algeria entered the era of liberalism, it abandoned all forms of planning, which actually constitute the core of long-term development. Despite a geographic area of 2.5 million km2, Algeria continues to follow the development pattern of the colonial authorities from the 1950s, and prioritize a development scheme that focuses only on the Sahel, i.e. one fifth of the total area of the country, while the population has almost tripled in 30 years. Now that relative peace is restored, a more serious investment in agriculture would help displaced people return to rural areas that were abandoned during the civil war, and, perhaps, open up new perspectives by clearing the highlands, those immense regions rich in water.
However, in order to achieve that, we must first ensure a better management of all housing schemes launched by the government, as they are diverted by corrupt managers instead of being allocated to those who truly need them.