Umbrella demo against high rents in Limassol

Scores of Akel members and party-affiliated youth and student organisations holding umbrellas symbolising house roofs gathered on Saturday in a central area of Limassol to protest over high rents and demand rent regulation.

The protest was organised by Akel, its youth organisation Edon and student body Proodeftiki which is affiliated with the party. Participants – among them Akel Limassol MPs, mayors of the greater Limassol area and MEP Neoclis Sylikotis – were asked to bring along an umbrella to symbolise the importance of having a roof over their heads.

Protesters marched along Makarios Avenue and gathered outside Laniteio gymnasium. They said that housing is a right and not a privilege, and demanded a number of measures to ensure no one is left homeless.

Speakers said that the increase in rents in Nicosia reached up to 30 per cent while in Limassol they have doubled resulting in an increase in homelessness.

The event was also addressed by representatives of the Movement for the Right to Housing and the association of single-parent families who called on the government to take measures to ensure the right to housing and to stop the increase observed in rents.

Protesters also called for the restoration of housing programmes, rent regulation, giving plots to young couples to build on, utilisation of state and church land for affordable housing and the creation of student dormitories and shelters for the homeless.

The message was also sent that people should unite to eradicate homelessness.

Akel deputy Giorgos Loukaides said that it was “tragic” that Cyprus, one of the EU countries with the highest percentages of home-ownership, has become “a country of homeless people.”

This, he said, was the outcome of the economic crisis but also of government policies, such as the “deep haircut on all housing programmes by the current administration.”

He urged the government to take decisions and measures to allow young couples “a right to the dream of home-ownership” and to tackle the problem of homelessness.

According to the latest data of the labour ministry the number of homeless people on social welfare’s radar has more than doubled each year since 2015 with 129 cases being managed last year compared with 49 in 2016 and 26 in 2015.