More than spare change

Lebanon sorely lacks affordable housing options. This is true across the country, but is especially acute in Beirut. Renting in the capital is a case in point. Rental agreements signed before 1992, in which rent increases were tightly controlled, allow some tenants to pay only a fraction of the going rate in the open market. This created a persistent imbalance in the market that has, over the last 20 odd years, favored pre 1992 long term renters to the detriment of building owners and apartment landlords. This must be rectified, but passing the newly amended rent law without a proper financing mechanism for the draft’s proposed public housing fund will create a legal mess, a judicial nightmare and, if possible, further erode public confidence in the government. The law calls for a fund of $1.5 billion to help tenants adjust, over a period of nine years, to the demands of