Spiralling rents leave quake victims out in the cold

Many of the victims from last year’s earthquake in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP) are facing homelessness as a government reconstruction scheme has fallen short of helping those not fortunate enough to own their own homes. For Akhter Bibi, who lost her rented home and all her possessions in the quake, life is a constant battle to survive. Forced to live in a makeshift tent with her husband and eight children on a muddied roadside kerb in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, her future looks bleak. “We lost everything,” the 38-year-old lamented, referring to her one-room home in the village of Naizpura just outside the cy. “We’ve received no compensation from the government and I’m told not to expect anything.” Her story is one repeated again and again throughout much of quake-ravaged northern Pakistan, where thousands of quake survivors who once rented their homes face little chance of rebuilding their lives - despite a government reconstruction scheme to compensate actual homeowners whose property was destroyed at the cost of around US $3,000. “These are the people who fall through the cracks and don’t receive the compensation they need,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator to Pakistan, Jan Vandemootele, told IRIN during a recent visit to the region. More than 75,000 people were killed and thousands more injured when the powerful 7.6-magnitude quake ripped through the region on 8 October, rendering more than 3.5 million people homeless - many of whom did not own their homes. “I’ve received nothing,” one resident and a locally hired staff member of the UN working in Muzaffarabad said candidly. “Everyone talks about this compensation scheme – all the while forgetting that those people who didn’t own their homes will get nothing.” And while this person had the good fortune of being able to stay with relatives in the city while she was working, many more find themselves like Bibi – living on the brink and wrestling with a future that remains poor. “Prior to the quake, we paid 500 rupees [$8.50] [a month] for our house,” Akhter said, adding that her husband who earns just $20 a month, has found little to no work to sustain them. “What are we supposed to do now?” she asked.

Farhan Dilawar, a Muzaffarabad estate agent, says rent prices have gone through the roof since the quake

Compounding that question further has been a dramatic increase in rent prices throughout the region, effectively squeezing those most in need out of the market altogether. Following the quake, rent prices in the city have doubled with a good house costing as much as $1,000 a month – far out of reach of most people, many of whom have also lost their livelihoods as well, Farhan Dilawar, a Muzaffarabad estate agent, said casually. “Only NGOs and international organisations can afford this,” the 22-year-old remarked, noting the impact their arrival to the area has had on housing prices. “I don’t know how locals are making it,” he said, conceding that at the very least a simple apartment in the city was expected to fetch around $250 a month.