DAMMAM: Poor families in the Eastern Province will soon be provided with sustainable housing units as part of the Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd Affordable Housing Project. Dr. Abdullah Hussain Al-Kadi of the College of Architecture and Planning, University of Dammam, and project manager of the Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd Affordable Housing Project, speaking at the opening Monday of the First Built Environment Development Symposium at the Asharqia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said around 2,000 sustainable housing units for poor families will be built in ten locations in the Eastern Province. “The housing project of Prince Muhammad is now building thesesustainable housing units in ten prime locations across the region, with the first phase of 148 housing units now being completed in Dammam,” Al-Kadi said. He said that the housing units will be self-containedand sustainable. “In addition to the amenities provided under the concept of sustainable housing, the Prince Muhammad Bin Fahd Affordable Housing Project will also look after the economic conditions of the beneficiaries of the housing project, such as providing training for members of families who are employable and later on finding them employment,” Al-Kadi told Saudi Gazette. He said the beneficiaries will pay for the housing units on easy payment terms of three to five years. The three-day symposium is being attended by housing experts from the GCC, Middle East, USA, Africa and Far East. It is aimed at providing a platform for investors, academicians, developers, urban planners and those interested in urban development and allowing them to share their expertise in sustainable housing development for both rural and urban communities. Organizers said these experts will help to evaluate sustainable housing development programs in Saudi Arabia. There are now many housing projects being proposed by both the government and private sector and these need to be assessed to determine their sustainability, organizers said. During the symposium, the experience and success of achieving sustainable real estate and housing development in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the world will be discussed. During the first day of the symposium, speakers from the United States, Algeria, Malaysia, Jordan and Nigeria gave an overview of sustainable housing programs in their respective countries and of their applicability in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
