Due to skyrocketing inflation and the recent rise in the prices of goods and services across Iran, housing prices have also risen. As a result, this has further increased the severity of homelessness. A video circulating on social media shows a family who has lost everything and is now living on the streets behind a public toilet.
The reporter in the video said, “We have confronted a family, who has been thrown out of their home due to the lack of money. All their property is now on the street. A woman sitting in a tent with unpleasantness said: ‘At nights it is very cold here. We are freezing. We are living behind this toilet. I’m a weak and sick woman. I have kidney pain and goiter. They close this toilet in the afternoon and during the night. Where should I go? This child is suffering from anemia. This is our situation. This is our life. I would change my name if the families of these officials would live here even for two days.’
A man situated near the woman said: “Raisi has destroyed everyone.”
In regards to the rising renting prices across the country, the state-run Farhikhtegan daily wrote, “The cost of housing in Iran is twice the world average, 32 million Iranians are engaged in renting housing.”
The paper added, “According to statistics, the number of tenants in Iran has increased from 12% in 1986 to 23% by 2006, to 27% by 2011, and 38% by 2020. This means that 32 million Iranians are involved in the issue of housing rents. This number is significant from the perspective that according to statistics, in urban areas of the country, 43% of tenants’ expenses are related to housing; This figure is equivalent to 2.2 times the average household expenditure in the world.”
Bahlul Hosseini, a member of the regime’s Civil Commission of the parliament, acknowledged that Raisi’s government had officially increased housing and rent prices by 25 percent, but in reality, prices have actually risen by between 300 and 400 percent.
The state-run Bahar News daily also quoted Hosseini on May 5 and wrote, “The rental market has been abandoned. 30 million tenants are in trouble in this market.”
Given that most of the people are living in rented accommodation and with the growing housing prices, homelessness of the people will lead to many social crises.
The state-run Mardom Salari newspaper quoted a regime economist named Athari in their publication, writing, “The social consequences of rising rents today are evident in society, and violence is spreading in society. Today, the officials can no longer deny the rooftop living because we see this lifestyle in our country.”
In this situation, especially with the recent rise in the prices of goods and services, buying a house has become impossible for many people.
On Wednesday, April 20, 2020, the applicants of Gonabad Saffron National Housing held a protest rally in front of the Gonabad Governor’s Office to protest the construction prices of this complex.
Despite the false promises of Raisi to solve the housing problem by building 4 million houses, what has happened to the Iranian people so far is the continuation of the tsunami of inflation, a 300 percent increase in rental prices, and the dispersion of tenants, whose patience is now running thin.
