1483 The Ben Bella Govermmont announced on February 19th that it was establishing rent ceilings which will be among the lowest in the world when they go into effect on March lst. Rents per room will range from 1,500 to to 7,650 francs, The new rate was calculated at about ten to fifteen per cent of income. Still lower ceilings will be established for certain cate ories, These include deductions of ten to twenty per cent for homes distant from the the centre of town; and up to forty and fifty per cent for the victims of war and veterans. It is caloulated that rent ceilings on the average will tis be ten to twenty per cent lower than under French imperjalist rule. The action of the Ben Belle goverment follows the precedent set bd the Castro regime which slashed rents by fifty per cent soon after coming o power,
For many families who moved into the tens of thousands of homes end apartments abandoned by the "pieds noirs™ (Europeans born in Algeria), the ruling moans the ond of free occupation and the beginning of rent payment. The government explained that the payment of rent for abandoned dwollings now constitutesa national heritage, Rents will be used to keep up the bildings and to construct new homes, The rent will not go to private landlords. It is payable to the tax office, An interesting sidelight on some of the problems faced by the new government was cast by its admonishment to many poor Algerians now living in the comfortable <uarters abandoned by pieds noirs that they should oust all family animals that have been brought into share the com forts of the new home. Among the privileged animals according to AL CHAAB, official daily of the F.L.N, are “goats, sheep and even cows",
Echoing the old tale of the British who used to keep coal in their baths, not appreciating thair resl value “in some apartments hath tubs have been filled with soil and put fo use as easily watered miniature gardens, All this mist be oriticisad by the neighbours," decleres AL CHAAB, "and these people re-educated",