Turkish housing agency is 'proud' to have rejected affordable housing plans in Eskişehir

The Turkish Housing Authority (TOKİ) has said that it was "proud" to have blocked the expansion of an affordable housing project in the opposition-led city of Eskişehir. “We have not compromised one gram of horizontal architecture, and we are proud of that,” TOKİ president Ömer Bulut said.

Thursday February 17 2022 05:47 pm

Duvar English

Turkey's Public Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) has said that it was “proud” to have blocked the expansion of affordable housing units in the opposition-led city of Eskişehir, according to reporting by daily Birgün.

Last week, Kazım Kurt, the mayor of Odunpazarı district in Eskişehir, held a press conference in which he said that TOKİ had blocked his municipality’s plans to expand affordable housing in the Karapınar neighborhood.

The Karapınar development was first announced in 2009 and developed by TOKİ. It was expanded in 2012 and in 2014, Odunpazarı municipality was granted authority over its zoning. In December of last year, Eskişehir city council unanimously approved a re-zoning plan to expand the housing development and offer more affordable units to residents in the midst of an economic crisis.

TOKİ, however, rejected the plan. They say that the facility went counter to density and environmental regulations, and lacked recreation facilities for residents. Kurt, however, says that the agency is simply interested in making a profit.

“They do not have a problem with building houses for our wealthier citizens. TOKİ is after rent,” he said.

TOKİ says that while Odunpazarı has the authority over zoning of the housing zone, they must do so with the approval of the housing authority. This is nowhere stipulated in the law.

“Even though the relevant municipality makes the plans in places with slum prevention zones, we are also involved in the issue,” TOKİ president Ömer Bulut said.

He insisted that this was a policy in place throughout Turkey. He says that normal practice, even when municipalities control zoning, is to ask input from TOKİ when developing.

TOKİ has received enormous funding from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and has become a means of the government developing and in some cases gentrifying many parts of the country. Millions of people in Turkey are deeply indebted to the public housing agency.

Bulut said of the rejection of affordable housing expansion, “We have not compromised one gram of horizontal architecture, and we are proud of that.”