ALL OVER ISRAEL
Innovative social intervention model for supporting elderly residents in urban renewal (2019-)
Partners: IAHC, Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, Bat Yam Municipality, Dalia and Eli Hurvitz Foundation
Background: Elderly residents, who usually prefer the familiar over extensive change, are often opposed to urban renewal projects. Moreover, when such projects are implemented, this underserved population frequently does not benefit from their positive aspects due to old age, gentrification or both.
IAHC initiative: Our innovative intervention model relies on the knowhow and expertise of municipal welfare services, and specifically the departments for elderly citizens, to help the elderly cope with the many challenges and changes involved in the process of urban renewal.
TEL AVIV
Recommended urban rental contract (2018)
Partners: IAHC, Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality
Background: About 50% of Tel Aviv's residents today live in rented apartments owned by private investors. The great demand for these apartments results in a market that all too often favors the owner, with rental contracts that are unfair to the tenant. The Tel Aviv Municipality decided to address this anomaly by formulating a recommended standard rental contract.
IAHC's contribution:
Commissioned by the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, we analyzed the main controversial issues in commonly used contracts and advised city officials in the formulation of a well-balanced and coherent standard contract that would be acceptable to all parties.
Achievements: The recommended contract is now available to be downloaded free of charge at the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality website.
BAT YAM
Social Mapping & derived recommendations for the Sha'ar Yosefatl urban renewal plan (2019)
Partners: IAHC, Bat Yam Municipality, LOG
Background: Sha'ar Yoseftal in Bat Yam is a large urban renewal project advanced by the Israeli government.
Our involvement: IAHC was commissioned by the Bat Yam Municipality to conduct comprehensive social mapping of the Sha'ar Yoseftal neighborhood, preparing to undergo urban renewal. For the first time in Israel, the mapping project resulted in very specific and detailed recommendations for the actual building plan, down to a resolution of apartment sizes, public area plans and flexible apartment plans that can be altered in the future to suit their owners' changing needs (for example: apartments that can be split without the need for obtaining a special permit).
Achievement: The first social mapping project in Israel to produce high-resolution recommendations for the actual building plan.
ACRE
Community driven development in Acre (2017-2019)
Partners: IAHC, Acre Municipality, Ministry of Construction & Housing, Ministry of Welfare & Social Services. Project Renewal, the Mediation Center
Background:
While recognized as a national priority, urban regeneration as a community based, citizen-driven process in cooperation with local authorities, is limited and will remain so without a fundamental shift in the approach and methods of planning to enable meaningful cooperation with citizens, and civil society organizations as a key to successful community development. The absence of this collaborative and inclusive dynamic is further evidenced as private developers are reluctant to invest in community engagement at the early stages of development given the economic uncertainty in these projects-especially in the low demand markets as Acre.
IAHC initiative: Since 2017, invited by the City of Akko, the AHC has been working to lead a multicultural study group focused on urban regeneration. Today, as a direct result of the successful cooperation between the AHC and the municipality, Akko is on track towards a participatory urban regeneration model that would create better housing conditions while fostering community development and citizen empowerment.
LOD
Advancing residents' interests in Banit Neighborhood urban renewal plan (2016-18)
Partners: IAHC, Lod Municipality, Urban Renewal Administration
Background: A private entrepreneur who wanted to develop an urban renewal project at the Banit Neighborhood in Lod, and had received approval from the Lod Municipality, ran into unsurmountable problems when he tried to obtain the residents' consent. Having heard of our work in the past, he turned to IAHC for assistance.
Our involvement: IAHC's professional representatives implemented an intensive program of crisis intervention.
Achievements:
· A structured procedure of social mapping
· Establishing an elected committee representing the residents
· Helping the committee draft, for the first time in Israel, a document that specifies the residents' demands from the entrepreneur, to be incorporated into any future agreement.
SOUTH TEL AVIV
Inclusive Development Plan for
South Tel Aviv neighborhoods:
Neve Shaanan, Shapira & Hatikva (2019-2020)
Partners: IAHC, Ahoti (My Sister) – for Women in Israel
Background: In recent years the communities of south Tel Aviv, a relatively low-income area to begin with, have had to absorb large numbers of African asylum seekers – many of whom are not able to work or to live anywhere else in Israel. The conditions and quality of life in these neighborhoods are relatively low and social and ethnic tensions are growing.
IAHC initiative: Our Inclusive Development program aims to advance the renewal and upgrade of underserved neighborhoods in south Tel Aviv, in ways that will include and benefit all residents. Issues to be addressed were chosen following discussions with residents, public officials and representatives of various NPOs active in these neighborhoods – who stressed the need for both physical and social development and expressed concern that the process may lead to gentrification and displacement of the original population.
RAMAT ELYAHU, RISHON LE TZION
Coalition for Social Justice in Urban Renewal (2016-2018)
Partners: Bimkom, IAHC, IAEJ, and Tarbut
Background: A large urban renewal project in Ramat Eliyahu, an area of low socioeconomic status populated largely by Israelis of Ethiopian origin, gave rise to a range of acute social problems.
Our involvement:
Step 1 – We provided training and support for a comprehensive process of social mapping in the neighborhood, as a critical foundation for effective intervention by various organizations.
Step 2 - The Ramat Eliyahu project, with its many obstacles and complications, provided us with an effective platform for advancing national policies to address the surfacing social issues - with a focus on elderly populations and affordable rental solutions.
Achievements:
· Comprehensive social mapping of the Ramat Eliyahu neighborhood
· Legislation regarding elderly populations in urban renewal
· Advancing affordable housing and the rights of tenants in rented apartments in a dialogue with the Government Authority for Urban Renewal.
Driving change in underprivileged communities
The purpose of the Community Department is to create 'best practices' in affordable housing and urban regeneration and to support affordable-housing and community driven urban regeneration initiatives already on the ground.
The Community Department also seeks to contribute to capacity building among residents, activists, professionals and local and national government agents involved in affordable-housing and urban regeneration initiatives and to serve as a source of knowledge in those areas.