Residents of collapsed Jofeh buildings to be given housing allowance

AMMAN — The Social Development Ministry will provide families who evacuated collapsed buildings in Jabal Al Jofeh with money to rent their own apartments, an informed source said on Monday. 

Dozens of families were evacuated earlier this month when three buildings collapsed in the east Amman neighbourhood. 

Authorities were initially notified last Thursday that part of a residential building in Jofeh had collapsed. 

Reports said a young engineer from the area saw the cracks in one building and called the Civil Defence Department (CDD), after which he managed to convince the residents to evacuate before the first building collapsed. 

The CDD evacuated hundreds from the surrounding buildings, with the help of police and social development officials.

The concerned agencies evacuated dozens of families of more than 380 individuals and provided them with alternative accommodation upon the directives of His Majesty King Abdullah. 

“We have notified the families that they have until February 1 to look for alternative accommodation and we will provide them with the money,” Social Development Ministry Spokesperson Fawaz Ratrout told The Jordan Times. 

Those who owned the collapsed apartments will get a monthly allowance of JD150 for six months, in addition to JD1,000 for furniture and JD200 for moving expenses. 

Tenants will receive JD150 for three months, JD1,000 for furniture and JD200 for the moving costs, while those who were evacuated as a precautionary measure but still have their apartments will be given JD150 for three months, according to Ratrout. 

“Of course, those who cannot find apartments by the start of February can extend their stay at the furnished apartments until they are ready to move,” he told The Jordan Times. 

While the families charged that authorities’ “negligence” was behind the collapse, the Jordan National Building Council maintained that arbitrary construction and cesspools were the primary cause of the incident.