Gëzim Sulejmani and his family are one of the families who have obtained an apartment from the Social Housing Program. After more than 50 years spent in improvised flats outside any standard, the Sulejmani family has now an apartment that meets the standard of living. They welcomed today in their new home Prime Minister Edi Rama and Mayor Erion Veliaj.

Construction for this social housing began when Prime Minister Rama was Mayor of Tirana, but after this program was blocked by his successor mayor, it was resumed two years ago, and since then 385 residential units have been distributed. Meanwhile, the municipality is also building 60 other social housing for the Roma community, with a new concept. “60 new residential units are being built. They will be like small family houses”, Mayor Veliaj said.

For every family that doesn’t have financial resources, the municipality is launching today its soft-loan program, from which more than 1,000 apartments are expected to be delivered over a year. “Our municipality is launching today the project of soft-loans, without the government help. We’ll make available 1 million dollars in order to lower loans, and this will enable us to deliver over 1 thousand apartments. The income-based packages are: zero payment, modest payment for social housing, or soft loan, or rent bonus”, Mayor Veliaj said.

This new initiative is expected to make Tirana’s economy grow, thanks to the capital invested by the city hall in collaboration with the banks. “We give 1 million dollars, but the bank will give 50-60 million. Which means that approximately 60 million dollars will go to Tirana’s economy only”, Veliaj said.

Prime Minister Rama emphasized vocational training for young people in general, and especially for children of the Roma community. “We’re now at a phase were economy is moving, and I’m convinced that the new programs will create additional jobs. We’re focused on giving everybody an opportunity. It’s out of question that it will take still time to form the army of skilled workers emerging from vocational education”, the Prime Minister said.

We have the vocational school in Sauk, supported by the Austrian government, but this 4-storey school is a small place which cannot host the high number of students who have submitted a registration application. Therefore, the school directorate has asked the municipality to expand the building. “Parents have become more sensitive to vocational education”, Veliaj noted.

The Prime Minister praised the perseverance of this family as an example of the effort to live on honest work and sacrifice.