After the missile damage, tenants face displacement and higher rents

Three renters in Israeli cities describe the aftermath of missile strikes that damaged their homes, forcing them into temporary housing and, in some cases, into a harsher rental market. The article says landlords are taking advantage of demand, with one resident in Arad reporting that asking rents have risen by about 1.5 times.

Roni Wexelman and his partner, Liza Rogachevsky, were living in rented housing in Arad when a missile landed near their building. They were evacuated first to a hotel and later moved into a friend’s house as a temporary solution for several months, where they still live. Wexelman says they have five months left on their lease and have not yet begun a serious search for a new home. He adds that the house they now occupy is normally rented at a much higher price than they can afford, but a family friend let them stay there to help them out. Regarding their damaged building, Wexelman said he was surprised it would be repaired rather than demolished, because the structure looked badly damaged.

In Tel Aviv, Noam Vardi and his partner’s home was damaged in the first Iranian missile strike at Shaagat Haari. Their apartment was hit but not destroyed, and authorities decided it would be renovated. The couple spent about two and a half months in a nearby hotel with many other neighborhood residents. Vardi says the hotel created a constant sense that they would leave soon, partly because of pressure from the Property Tax authorities to find a housing solution. In practice, they returned only about three weeks ago. He says meeting other residents in the hotel changed how they felt and helped persuade them to go back to the same apartment.

A third case involves Shahar, whose rented apartment in Ramat Gan was damaged so badly that he and his two children could not return. They spent about a month in a hotel before moving to a farther apartment without a reinforced shelter room. He says he filed an additional compensation claim after the first one, because he could not inspect all the damaged belongings immediately after the strike. Property Tax eventually paid the full amount, about 30,000 shekels for the additional claim, bringing his total compensation for household contents to about 104,000 shekels.