Under these circumstances, old lease contracts provide housing for more than 500,000 persons in major Lebanese cities. Beirut includes the largest share, about a quarter of a million persons, followed by Tripoli. On the other hand, since the inflation of the Lebanese pound during the civil war and as rents depreciated, the rent law turned into a controversy between the old landlords and the tenants. The matter has been exacerbated by the post-war policies that have made the private sector the main player in the provision of housing and imposed an economic system based on real-estate investment without any form of regulation.
With the restructuring of the State in the 1990s, old lease contracts – structured according to a rent control regime and defined as the main mode of accessing and sustaining housing in the pre-war era – turned into a «problem» that subsequent draft laws failed to resolve it. As such, in 1992, the system of rent control was terminated for new leases, and by that the state violated a social contract based on housing rights that had lasted for more than five decades; without addressing the old-leases problematic. Since then, the old tenants’ issue was directly linked to a wider cause of affordable and adequate housing, and the need to develop a socially motivated housing policy was considered to be the roadmap to reach a just solution to the old rent dilemma.
Conversely, the old-leases problematic took on a different dimension with soaring property prices accompanied by the possibility of making huge profits if tenants were to be evicted for the purpose of real estate investment. Old tenants were evicted in return for a financial compensation in the value of 40% of the property valuation. In this equation, the monetary value of property had the upper hand over its social value, and the city’s residents found a source for financing their needs, given the inadequacy of social security at all levels, including education, healthcare, retirement and housing.
In April 2014 - without any studies or surveys on the demographics of old tenants and old landlords, their social and economic backgrounds, and how they inhabit the city - a new rent law promoted as «the solution» to the old-leases problem, was passed under the slogan of doing justice to the impoverished old landlords. With the issuance of this law, the discourse centered around the dichotomy of tenants versus landlords, while obscuring the role of the public authorities at the core of this crisis. On the other hand, several studies, including those carried by the Legal Agenda, have shown that the parties benefiting from the new law are the owners of large capital. One of the studies shows that the details of the law includes very complex and expensive procedures, and can potentially stoke confrontations and conflicts between tenants and landlords. It concludes by saying that the law is a sign of «the power of the Parliament’s commitment to give precedence to owners of large capital and their interests, even if this requires sacrificing the state’s main function of promoting social harmony.»
The City’s Future and Social Cohesion
Neighborhoods with old tenants are characterized by a diverse social fabric in terms of income, religion, denomination, place of birth and nationality, in addition to the close linkages between old residents and the cultural and urban history of the place. These old neighborhoods bear witness to what remains of the social and economic relations that were ruined during the civil war, as well as offer new housing opportunities to a diverse segment of the population. As such, they offer the possibility of an integrated and inclusive city. For, although Beirut shelters diverse groups of different nationalities and affiliations, nonetheless, demarcation lines between neighborhoods are recreated precisely in the process of buying properties, real estate development, and through the housing market. Moreover, the eviction of old tenants transforms neighborhoods into enclaves for the rich that are divided along sectarian lines. The city has become an opportunity for accumulation of wealth for the elite, and a reflection of the political wrangling between the parties contending for power. This spatial reconfiguration manifests as the the public authorities abandon their role in organizing housing according to an urban vision that preserves the historical urban environment and promotes social cohesion, while extracting social guarantees and threatening housing security. As a result, religious authorities’ power over the population is strengthened, whilst their necessary geographic distribution is met; consequently, minimizing the role of citizenship in peacebuilding.
The recent rent law is tantamount to the judicial authorities’ endorsement of protecting the interests of the owners of large capital and a tool to creating innovative and violent mechanisms to deprive the city’s residents from the possibility of staying in houses and neighborhoods where they have long lived and earned their livelihoods. These laws are issued in tandem with dominant discourse that deliberately conflates notions, where the right to housing is reduced to the right to ownership, and ownership rights expand at the expense of other rights and public interest. By that, the law has also turned into a symbolic tool that deprives residents of their ability to resist eviction, play a role in creating the city’s and their own future, and increases the vulnerability of their living conditions.
The impact of the law does not only involve society’s most vulnerable (the elderly, disabled, non-nationals and the poor), but also, by expelling people from their neighborhoods, will also push up the number of vulnerable and marginalized. Beirut’s residents are not at risk of eviction because of their legal status, but rather as a result of policies that undermine citizenship rights and consider them an obstacle to real estate development. This leads to unjust and undignified practices against city dwellers and forces them to undergo the ordeal of proving their «legitimacy» to remain in the city.
Narrating Beirut Through Its Tenants’ Stories
In this context, Public Works Studio carried out Narrating Beirut Through its Tenants’ Stories, a multi-disciplinary project (2015-2016) that studied the impacts of market-driven developments and policies on residential rights in Beirut and the creation of social and spatial injustices, resulting in the displacement of many low and middle-income families. To counteract these processes that are fragmenting lives and neighborhoods, the project aimed at studying, shaping, and implementing counter strategies to this ongoing process of displacement and shortage of affordable housing. As such, the research developed through a series of workshops on six neighborhoods in Beirut (Bashoura, Badawi, Tareek Jdeedeh, Mossaitbe, Roum, Chiah), where the investigation centered around the modes in which Beirut’s residents access housing and vest claims over their homes and neighborhoods. The project also documented potential paths towards affordable housing, by mapping abandoned buildings, vacant apartments, rent-controlled units, evictions, landscape of housing arrangements and changes in land ownership.
The research was rooted within a vision of historicizing housing in relation to neighborhoods, while addressing the question of how do people - who are not covered by any property rights - inhabit the city?
Tenancy
One of the main findings of the survey conducted on buildings built prior to 1992 is that rent, both old and new, is the primary means of accessing housing. In some neighborhoods, the number of tenants exceeded the average for Beirut – 49.5% according to a UNDP study in 2008 – reaching 66% of residents in the Badawi district and 52% in the Roum district. The average number of old leases in the neighborhoods covered by the study is 23% – this figure is higher in older neighborhoods that still maintain a cohesive urban fabric.
In Moussaitbeh, for example, the buildings with old leases is below average and equivalent to the number of new buildings constructed after 1992. However, in Moussaitbeh’s inner neighborhoods, like Hay el Lija to the east and the old backstreets of Furn el Bacha and Sufh, the majority of residents are old tenants and old landlords, most of whom share the same buildings.
Eviction and Investment
Despite a growing housing crisis, the study found a high number of vacant buildings in the mapped neighborhoods, ranging between 10% and 12% of the old urban fabric.
It also found that of the 381 buildings mapped in Tariq el Jdideh, 17 were vacant buildings as a result of eviction, 8 were vacated apartments and 19 buildings were threatened with eviction. One of these buildings has 28 apartments, with mostly elderly residents. In the Roum district and on Mar Mikhael Street, 11 building have been vacated and converted from residential use to restaurants and bars. It also found a block of 13 residential buildings in Moussaitbeh, around the Moussaitbeh mosque, that were vacated and damaged.
This is sample of the numbers found through the survey. However, when the mechanisms of eviction are explored in-depth, we find that the transfer of property ownership and the construction of mega projects that are at odds with the urban and social fabric of neighborhoods are the main drivers of evictions.
In the Roum district, for example, apartment prices increased today from USD 1,200 per square meter to USD 4,050, whereas 75% of Rmeil’s residents are low-income tenants. Similarly, the price per square meter has risen in Tariq el Jdideh to USD 2,400 while most of the neighborhood’s population are low-income residents.
We also noted that these new projects are taking over public spaces and social landmarks, such as the demolition of the Olympia/Vendome film theater and other buildings categorized as heritage sites, and replacing them with a 19-storey building in Mar Mikhael, or the demolition of a building that was home for the elderly in Chiyah.
Stories from the Neighborhoods
Joumana and Leaving
Tariq el Jdideh
Joumana and her family of seven have been suffering since they moved from the home where they were born and brought up in the Tariq el Jdideh area (Abu Shaker Square), to the town of Barja in Iqlim el Kharoub, south of Beirut.
The family was forced to leave its «historical» home and move to «an area they have no ties to but the new house they now live in» after the old building was sold to a real estate company that decided to demolish it and replace it with a newer construction. Joumana’s family was not the only one affected by this situation, and it included all other old tenants residing in the building, since the compensation to evict was very modest and did not allow them to rent or buy a house within the city of Beirut.
The family had bought the house in Barja ten years ago, but kept offering it for sale several times out of reluctance. Realizing that they would not be able to live in Beirut anymore, the family obtained a bank loan to equip the house and make it habitable.
The remoteness from the environment in which they grew, the traditions that they knew, and the friends and neighbors with whom they lived gave rise to «a sense of alienation… an alienation that they were not able to come to terms with.» There was also the long daily commute to work to Beirut, traffic and transport expenses.
After a year living in Barja, Joumana decided to leave her family and return to Beirut. She rented a room in an apartment she shares with several other girls. The decision to share accommodation was difficult for her in the beginning, but it was the simplest and least expensive option, as rents are high and buying a property is beyond the bounds of possibility.
Joumana’s entire family experienced this tension and confusion, and in particular her mother, who was lonely and found it difficult to engage with the new society after being separated from the place where she had spent 60 years of her life. Her health deteriorated and she was hospitalized several times.
«Unfortunately, all our neighbors are facing the same pressures and suffering, and they had to move to Jieh, Jadra and Sibline», says Joumana on the terrible situation her family and other families endure.
The Old Tenants Are the Weakest Link Confronting Mar Mikhael’s Investors
Property number 641 on Mar Mikhael Street includes the houses of elderly Georgette, Umm Michel and her disabled husband, Madame Hayat, Mr. Nassif’s family, Abu Wahid’s family, and Mr. George. This property includes three small buildings that were inhabited by these six families, four of them were old tenants and two old landlords, in addition to Garo’s shop on the main street Mar Mikhael. The original owner built the front part of the property in the 1930s, then in the 1950s he built the two rear parts. After his death, the property was passed down to his 11 heirs, only two of which reside on it, in its front part. In 2011, an investor, under the name of Michel-Ange Company, bought the shares of the non-residents, thus besieging the resident owners and forcing them to sell.
The company evicted the residents gradually, and prepared for a large project. The new owner sealed Georgette’s house with red wax after her death, before her children were able to go in and recover her things. Umm Michel and her husband, Madame Hayat, Mr. Nassif’s family, Abu Wahid’s family and Mr. George were not able to stay in the neighborhood due to high housing prices, and thus moved out of Beirut.
This is just one of the many stories on Mar Mikhael Street.
Before 2006, Mar Mikhael was an industrial street on the outskirts of the city, where carpenters, shoemakers and craftsmen had lined the street since the 1920s. About 10 years ago, restaurants, pubs and galleries moved to the street due to its low rents and unique social and urban character. As a result of this economic transformation, the prices of apartments soared in the neighborhood and this rise has had an enormous impact on the housing situation there. There we found that most of the buildings are owned by several heirs, sharing the shares of a single property. Often, it is difficult for multiple owners to parcel out their property due to high parceling fees. Therefore, it is easier for real estate investors and developers to convince owners to sell, especially those who do not reside in the property itself, the fact which forces the others to sell, especially those with smaller shares. Many old owners see selling as a financial profit that would guarantee their old age, in the absence of any other securities.
The Tailor Michel Khayyat Between Downtown Beirut and al Khazenein Street
Michel Khayyat and his family moved to the city seeking an education in one of the capital’s school. His father, a farmer, who wanted to provide the best education for his children, refused to leave his house and village and give up working the land. Therefore, he rented an apartment for his family next to the school in the al-Roum Hospital (St. George Hospital) district, visiting them from time to time.
Michel grew up in this neighborhood, swarming with memories, between the train and tram stations. He still remembers how he and his friends would avoid paying five piasters for the ride, sneaking on the train from the back door.
He talks with pain about the traditions of Gemmayze Street that time wiped away. The dead would be placed in a cart pulled by two horses and when the procession passed on the street, shopkeepers would close their stores out of respect. Today death is no longer honored and funerals and weddings are held at the same time and in the same building.
Michel learned sewing at one of the capital’s shops, where he gained extensive experience. When he was professionally ready, he rented a shop in Burj el Ghazal, next to Sahat al Burj, known today as Martyr’s Square. He spent 29 years working in that shop, until the day Solidère forced him out of it for a small sum of money. It was the building in which Michel rented his first shop in the capital. Its owner tried to save it from the brutality of Solidère by attaching himself with a chain to the building, trying to stop the bulldozers from demolishing it. Michel recounts that the owner’s resistance did not prevent the security men from untying him and pushing him away, after humiliating him in front of cameras and the local media. As punishment for his stance, the company did not pay the owner the full compensation, and carried on with the demolition as if nothing had happened.
So, Michel returned to the Roum district and opened a new shop there on Khazeneen Street, where he works to this day.
Transfer of Ownership to Local Investors Camp Hadjin
Jeanette is a resident of Camp Hadjin in the Badawi district. She lives just a few steps away from the St. George Armenian Church. Her house is very small, just 55 square meters, with a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom. She has been living with her husband in this house since 2000, but he died four years ago. Her daughter, a mother of two, lives with her. Jeanette works as a seamstress and does not make much money, charging LBP 2,000 for hemming pants.
The house is owned by the Aremnian Waqf, or religious endowment. The church rents out the flat for a fixed fee of USD 200, which has not changed since Jeanette moved to the area 17 years ago. Previously, Jeanette lived with her family on Mar Mikhael Street in an old lease. But in agreement with the landlord, she was evicted for a compensation she did not eventually receive. She says he had stripped her of her right.
Camp Hadjin was established as a residential project in 1929 and was dedicated to Armenian refugees who came to Beirut in 1922 fleeing the Cilicia massacres. At the time, Red Cross organizations and French mandate authorities took measures to set up thousands of tents in the Karantina district. From 1926 onwards, and at the initiative of Armenian associations and assistance from the mandate authorities, permanent solutions were proposed for the resettlement of Armenian refugees outside the camp. As a result, they were gradually moved to areas adjacent to Karantina, such as Camp Hadjin, which historically consists of three large properties of a total area of 25,000 square meters. The Compatriatic Union of Hadjin has bought the properties, annexed and re-parceled them to house 400 families. The main system of the project prohibits demolition in the neighborhood, even with the passage of time.
For decades, Camp Hadjin allowed for housing arrangements that made it possible for low-income social groups to find housing. But despite the prohibition of demolition, there is a big property-buying movement in the neighborhood. Since 1992, the ownership of 21 properties has been transferred, 5 of which are occupied by old tenants and 8 bought by the brothers Ara and Mher Dakessian one of which is located on Armenia Street and is being converted into a restaurant.
(Maps and Pictures - copyrights of Public Works Studio)