A REPATRIATED Turkish Cypriot man Ismael Taner Seifi is facing homelessness for the second time in a year because he lacks the funds to pay rent.
Unable to find work, Seifi has been depending on a rent allowance of €170 from Social Services, but the temporary accommodation where he is presently staying is closing and he is faced with finding himself homeless once again on the streets of Limassol.
“I have tried everywhere, Social Services, District Administration, the previous Interior Minister. No-one could help me. If I end up homeless again, I will go on a hunger strike so people can see that there is a homelessness problem in Cyprus,” Seifi told the Cyprus Mail.
Seifi returned to Limassol from the UK in 2007 and initially got state housing at Arnaout Street in Limassol’s Turkish Quarter. “I was then made to leave that house by the authorities as they put someone else there. At that point I was homeless. For about a month I was sleeping on benches at the seafront,” he said.
In the UK Seifi was working as a taxi driver and tried to find similar work in Cyprus, but with no success. “I have chronic bronchitis and I get tired easily. The doctor told me I can only do light work, which includes driving a taxi. I went to the Labour Services and asked for a job, but they never got back to me.”
Seifi finally found a room at a low cost hotel in Limassol and Social Services offered to pay a monthly rent allowance of €170 for him to stay there. However, the hotel recently informed its occupants that it will be closing and that they need to vacate by the end of May. Since then, he has been searching for a flat, but cannot find anything in the range of €170, which is what Social Services are willing to provide.
“Rent prices have gone up, and I don’t know how anyone can afford them. There is no way I can find a place with these prices. The place I’m staying now is smelly and in a bad condition, but at least I have a bed. I am afraid of being homeless again,” he said.
Seifi does not believe that he is being targeted because of his ethnic origin. “It is not because I’m Turkish Cypriot. There are Greek Cypriots who are homeless because they have no money. The situation does not just affect me – there are many like me. There is one specific Greek Cypriot now living on benches at Heroes Square in Limassol.”
Social Services said yesterday that Seifi receives a monthly allowance of €560, which includes rent and basic needs. Social Services officers said that the rent allowance of €170 cannot be increased.
According to Seifi, Social Services offered to place him in an Old People’s Home, which disturbed the 57-year-old man. “I can clean myself and can cook for myself – I am not going to an Old People’s Home at this age. All I want is a place to stay so I can live like a human being.”
