Building on the Mount of Olives Hoping to stem the flow of Christians from the Holy Land, Lutherans build affordable housing Family life centers around one room in Saleh and Sahar Kawas’ apartment in Jerusalem’s Old City. It’s where the 30-something couple and their five children eat, do homework, watch TV, play indoor basketball and sleep. Their cramped conditions illustrate a larger problem. Lutheran World Federation regional representative Mark Brown said affordable housing is hard to come by for Jerusalem’s Christian Palestinians. To help, the LWF plans to construct an $8-million Christian housing project on almost 4 acres on the Mount of Olives. Done in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the Germany-based Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Foundation, the homes would sit near Augusta Victoria Hospital on the southeastern corner of LWF property. The project consists of 84 low-rent apartments in 12 buildings.
Although municipal building permits were first approved in the 1990s, they expired before work could begin due to a lack of funding, Brown said. This time he hopes to have initial building funds available once the permits come through. The LWF is meeting with the municipality to obtain approval of the master site plan for the LWF Mount of Olives property. This plan will include the housing project and a sports and community center serving East Jerusalem neighborhoods. So far the meetings to discuss the plan and building permits have been positive, Brown said. Mass exodus “The need for housing is more urgent and clearer because of the departure of so many Palestinian Christians,” Brown said. “Steps have to be taken.” In the early 1990s, about 10,000 Christian Palestinians lived in Jerusalem, Brown said. Now the city is home to about half that number, including 600 Lutherans, Younan added. Although the LWF provides for the humanitarian needs of all Palestinians regardless of religious affiliation, Brown said it’s now urgent that Lutherans focus on “preserving and protecting the Palestinian Christian community here.” Younan said the housing crisis came about because decent and affordable homes are scarce, too few building permits are available in East Jerusalem, and the Israeli-built separation barrier divides the community. Families who rented homes in Jerusalem neighborhoods found themselves on the “wrong” side of the wall—their access into Jerusalem became more complicated or was partially, even completely, curtailed. Now these families scramble to solve their housing problems, adding to the demand for homes and hiking up apartment rents. ELCA help is necessary Brown and others hope ELCA congregations and members will help raise at least $2 million toward construction of the housing project. Pledges are also likely to come from church and governmental groups in Europe, he said. Susan and Jim Hooker, members of Bethany Lutheran, Crystal Lake, Ill., are spearheading a fundraising drive in ELCA congregations this spring, hoping to raise $1 million by September 2006. The ELCA Church Council set aside $100,000 in 2005, and as of March 2006 individuals had pledged another $57,000. Funds that can’t be raised will be covered by low-interest government loans, Brown added, and eventually paid off by the rental income. Brown hopes to begin construction by early 2008. They’ve already started building a retaining wall along the property’s edge. They’re also clearing away and replanting dozens of olive trees from landslated for the project. “With God’s blessing the whole project will be well under way in two years and families will be preparing to move into the new apartments,” Brown said. It won’t be a minute too soon for Saleh Kawas and his wife, Sahar, although they don’t know anything yet about the housing application process. The Kawas are raising five children—twin sons Carlos and Chris were born prematurely at the end of October—in a tiny mold and mildew-riddled apartment. The apartment has a small kitchen, one bathroom, an attached courtyard, and a bedroom that is living quarters for Saleh’s younger brother, who shared that room with his parents until their death. The two brothers were raised here. Sahar Kawas, a full-time mom, tries to be philosophical about their predicament: at least rent is relatively low. Anywhere else in Jerusalem, rent would run into several hundreds of dollars, she said. For now this is all they can afford. At presstime, Saleh Kawas wasn’t working. “I don’t want a big house,” Sahar Kawas said. “I just want one bedroom for my children and one bedroom for Saleh and me. God willing when the babies are big we will have a bigger house.” She feels her daughters Niran, 13, and Nariman, 12, will need their own bedroom. For now she worries about rowdy gangs and drugs in the Old City and wishes there were playgrounds and parks nearby. The children spend most of their time at home, she said. Brown said the new apartments will offer a sense of security and tenants can live there as long as they like. The church, Younan added, has a responsibility to help provide safe, affordable housing. “It’s not politics. We just want to stay in Jerusalem where our holy places are,” he said. “This is the place where I grew up, and I want my children to stay here. It’s as simple as that.” Younan’s children do live here, for now. Andrew, 21, works toward a master’s degree at the Technion Institute in Haifa, Israel, and Annaliza, 24, works at Jerusalem’s National Democratic Institute. His youngest child, Marta, is 14. But even he worries: “When they marry, where will they live? What will they do?” |
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