After the Eviction

For the past five years, Tareq has been forced to live outside his residence in the Maspero Triangle in central Cairo, after a government decision in 2018, to demolish its buildings in the name of “urban development”, forcing its residents to evacuate. Upon his return to the area in May of 2023, Tareq, was shocked to find that his new replacement apartment had an area of merely 60 m2, which was unsuitable for his family’s size and lifestyle. This is in addition to new financial burdens Tareq was forced to undertake.

In the fall of 2022, the city council cut off electrical, gas and water supplies to 150 residences in the Khusus area of Al-Qalyubia, north of Cairo, to force the residents to evacuate, as a final measure before the start of demolishing the area that obstructed the path for the construction of the ring road development. The residents were left without any compensation or any alternative or temporary place to stay as was the case with Ibrahim’s family which owned a five story residence, and many other residents of the area.

26 Urban Regions in Cairo, Giza and Al-Qalyubia

of population resides in this area

of its residential areas are unplanned and are subject to redevelopment

Populated area

Unsafe areas spread across 550 acres including 63000 residential units

Size of population

Greater Cairo Region

Alongside these urban development projects which have spread across Cairo, the Egyptian Parliament has approved amendments presented by the government to the law on property expropriation for public interest twice. The first was in April 2018, and the second in September 2020. These amendments facilitated development plans, according to Yahiya Shawkat, expert on housing and urbanization policies and legislations, who sees these law amendments as one of the most important tools used by the government in planning and executing development projects.

During the eviction of the residents of the Maspero triangle, the government, represented by the governorate of Cairo, gave them three options: financial compensation, alternative housing/apartments, or return after redevelopment. Tareq was one of 900 families who chose the third option of return. The rest of the area’s residents, estimated at 4600 families chose either financial compensation or moving to an apartment in the Asmarat neighborhood. Despite the harsh conditions placed by the government, that Manal Al-Teeby, Director of the Right to Housing Initiative, described as “difficult and complicated,” Tareq’s choice to return after redevelopment was due to the fact that he was born and raised in the area, and lived there with his family for 30 years.

However, the option to return to the area after redevelopment, especially areas considered prime locations and strategically located, was no longer offered by the government. This is the reality that faced Ibrahim’s family, who owned a five story building in the Khusus area, and who were given the options of either financial compensation, or an apartment in one of the new development projects on a lease-to-own basis. The family chose financial compensation, but was surprised a few days later, along with many other families, that utilities services had been cut off from their residences, and that they had been ordered to evacuate immediately in preparation for demolition. The family and others objected to the decision because they had not yet received any compensation, nor had they been offered alternative housing until the compensation payment came through.

Officials in the neighborhood, who moved around accompanied by security forces, told them to “deal with it,” and to avoid being accused of resisting authorities or obstructing their work, Ibrahim’s family and others were forced to sleep in the street for 33 days until they received the compensation which he said was below the value of his family’s home, and which would not enable him to buy any similar residence.

Ibrahim and his neighbors in the Khusus area, and Tareq and his sons in the Maspero area were luckier than others. In some areas of Giza and its suburbs the payment of compensation for property expropriation took three years, which led Egyptian member of Parliament Ihab Mansour, a member of the Work Force Committee, to request a debriefing from the Prime Minister.

The redevelopment projects were not only confined to slums and unplanned areas in the Greater Cairo Region, but also spread to licensed and planned areas, like the Tersa Street south of Giza, the Almatha area east of Cairo, and the 6th District of Nasr City.

The historic Nile houseboats with their historical heritage and importance, as they constituted the rich and famous of Cairo’s dwellings since the 1930s, did not escape demolition under the pretense of “restructuring the civil appearance of the Nile River.” Such was the case with fifty year old Na’mah, who had lived for 27 years in her houseboat on the banks of the Nile River in the Agouza area. She says: “I have lived in this place for half my life. All my memories and sorrows are here. They are destroying and discarding a part of my life.”

Urban researcher Ahmad Zaza’a says that this wave of demolitions and evictions during the past few years was unprecedented in Egyptian history, and will have grave consequences. He adds that 220 thousand Egyptians have been forced to evacuate their homes during the past six years in Cairo alone, all of whom have been negatively impacted both economically, due to the rise in the cost of living, the decline in income, and socially, due to the disintegration of their family ties.

Before leaving the area called, the Maspero Triangle, Tareq used to live in his parents home with his wife, and his mother and brothers, each with their own family (wife and children), and each in a separate apartment. However, after the governmental evictions, the family members separated. Some rented an apartment in the KitKat area, while others moved to other locations within the governorate of Giza. Tareq’s family (including his wife and children) moved with his mother to another house owned by his father in the Boulaq Al-Dakrour area in Giza.

Shortly after, the family was unable to adjust to their new residence because of its distance from the children’s school and Tareq’s place of work, as his wife explained, not to mention the new financial burden. Tareq then moved to a residence closer to his previous home, renting a small apartment in Wakalet Al-Balah in the Boulaq Abu Al-Ola area in Cairo. His mother remained in the house in Boulaq Al-Dakrour by herself.

A similar thing happened to Ibrahim’s family who used to live in Khusus in the Qalyubia area north of Cairo. He no longer lived near his brothers, facing the same separation and dispersal experienced by thousands of other Egyptians.

The choice to leave the new homes earmarked by the government for the benefit of families evicted from the Maspero area, was a choice taken by 220 families. They settled in the new Asmarat neighborhood in Al- Muqattam, but they too, could not adjust to their new places of residence, consequently moving to the “Bashtil” neighborhood which had slum-like character, similar to their former areas of residence. This was a direct result of the government’s application of the narrow remit of the concept of “adequate housing.”

Urban Researcher Ahmad Zaza’a who worked on the Maspero project during its early stages says that evicted families have decided to leave the new residential areas due to differences in the living conditions from those they have been used to. For example, in the Asmarat neighborhood, as in others, no commercial businesses were allowed to operate on ground floors, which was a problem because this constituted the main source of income for this particular social class.

The Maspero Triangle Before and After Development

Displaced due to urban developments

For residents wishing to return and take on additional financial burdens

The cost of urban development in the Maspero area

“Public benefit does not only concern the government, but also the citizens.” Yahiya Shawkat, expert on the analysis of housing and urbanization policies and legislations, says “citizens can greatly benefit from this “public benefit or interest,” which makes property expropriation possible but only after discussing the issue with the concerned people openly and ensuring wide social participation to explain how such projects will benefit all parties.”

Shawkat adds that property expropriation is usually linked to a “public emergency” like war or natural disaster. But within the framework of planning carried out by the government, long term plans need to be placed to give owners enough time to practice their rights and provide the aggrieved parties with adequate and complete compensation before the actual expropriation of the property.

In this regard, Manal Al-Teeby, activist and Director of the Right to Housing Initiative, says: “Hence, no official or executive body has the right to evict citizens or demolish their homes without entering into negotiations with them and reaching a better and adequate outcome that meets their needs in their new habitat. Otherwise, it is considered a form of forced eviction which is criminalized by international law.”

The number of residential areas affected by government’s urban development projects in the Greater Cairo Region exceeds 100, according to data from the Informal Settlements Development Fund. Despite the social, cultural and economic differences between these areas, each of them has its unique residential and urban fabric, and most of its residents are connected by social ties, economic relations and a similar cultural background.

Al-Teeby states that the government and its executive bodies dealt with the homes of these residents as if they were merely “four walls and a roof,” as something inanimate rather than a place around which livelihood revolves in all its different aspects such as work, school, health, environment and social and economic status.

Governmental policies and the evictions in areas earmarked for development impacted those residents economically, due to their forced eviction and the amount of financial compensation which fell short from enabling them to own a home similar to the one they had vacated. This is specifically what happened with Ibrahim who had to rent an apartment for 1200 EGP monthly, which amounted to one third of his monthly income of 4000 EGP. His brother, who works as adecorator, faced more dire circumstances due to his lack of a fixed income. Therefore, he had to dig into the compensation fund he had received to pay for his rent and the livelihood to his three children. His second brother who was planning to marry had to put everything on hold due to financial difficulties.

Ihab Mansour, Representative of the Parliamentary Work Force Committee states that the problem lies not within the law itself, but rather its execution and the procedures and committees responsible. According to the law, committees are formed to evaluate units, and quite often these evaluations tend to be “unfair.” The representative documented several such cases within his constituency, where a home’s number of rooms would be calculated as part of its overall area but its bathroom and kitchen would be excluded. In other cases, the committee would estimate the amount of 40 thousand EGP as compensation for each room in the house. According to Mansour, in the event the kitchen and bathroom were included in the committee’s calculation, the compensation for all other rooms in the house would drop to only 25 thousand EGP per room.

Mansour adds: “The law stipulates that an official document with all relevant data, including the amount of compensation, shall be hung on the property one month prior to its expropriation. Unfortunately, this does not happen in reality, a fact which was substantiated by other residents we spoke to in the area.

The declining value of the Egyptian pound and the current economic crisis in Egypt has taken its toll on those affected by urban development also, especially those who have been informed of the amount they would receive in compensation, but still have not received any payment. Hence, as time goes by, the compensation amount evaporates gradually due to the decreasing value of the Egyptian pound. Simultaneously, there has been an increase in the prices of houses and apartments, which further complicates matters for citizens, according to Mansour.

Therefore, Manal Al-Teeby states that the solution lies in relocating and redeveloping within the same vicinity, as was the case in the urban redevelopment of Rawdat Al-Sayyeda Zainab in Cairo. It remains the best solution, yet most projects carried out by the government since 2014, have been so unjust towards the area’s residents, that even those who decide to stay are eventually forced to pack and leave.

Al-Teeby wonders why the government skimps on paying adequate compensation to the residents of these areas despite the fact that it benefits greatly from those projects financially. Land in areas considered affluent is utilized by the government to build upmarket housing projects; a practice described by Al-Teeby as “governmental greed” in making financial gains at the expense of the area’s residents.

It took five years for the Ministry of Housing in cooperation with private companies to finish redeveloping the Maspero Triangle, which is currently called the Maspero Towers, turning it into a gated “compound” with the exception of the part allocated for the area’s residents who opted to return after redevelopment.

Tareq and Wael are among the residents of Maspero who chose to return to the area. Wael, a resident of the area and a member of its association, says that they were surprised to find home specifications that were different from those mentioned in the contracts they signed, and that units had not been fully completed. Some units had not even received any basic services yet, and other buildings were not equipped with elevators despite the fact that some were over 15 stories high.

Wael adds that despite all these shortcoming, he and his neighbors were forced to pay 13500 EGP in return for services and facilities, in addition to having to pay a monthly rent of 1000 EGP since April 2023, before even moving into their designated homes.

Al-Teeby says that before 2014, the center for the Right to Housing Initiative began negotiations with the government regarding the cases of afflicted residents, “We would reach solutions that were satisfactory to both parties, the government and the residents, but currently, and due to the prevailing political conditions, residents live in fear of violating any of the government’s decisions concerning their homes, be it with regard to evictions or demolitions, and are even afraid to reject or object to the amount of compensation they are offered.”

As the government and its various executive bodies continue to implement their development plans, residents of other areas, like the 6th and 7th districts on Nasr City east of Cairo, nervously await the government’s decision to demolish their homes and evict them, in the name of “urban development.”

Wael and Tareq are still waiting for the Ministry of Housing to complete the installation of basic utilities to their homes, so that they can finish paying the remaining financial obligations, while Na’mah, the houseboat owner, awaits the government’s approval for her return to her home of 30 years, which the Ministry of Irrigation is considering transferring to another location on the Nile’s riverbank, outside the boundaries of the “Greater Cairo Nile” region. Ibrahim’s family still dreams of once again owning a five story house that would reunite its members in one place like before. The redevelopment project has turned them, from home owners, into renters of an apartment in the same area, still described by the government today, as an “informal settlement.”

This investigation was completed with support from ARIJ