DUBAI // People sharing villas continue to defy the ban imposed by Dubai Municipality, refusing to move out until they are forced to. The municipality's "One villa one family" campaign reached its final stage last month as the authority issued a 30-day deadline, ending on Oct 24, for families sharing villas to move out. Power and water supplies to the homes of those who defy the ban will be disconnected, officials warned.
The campaign targets families but is also seeking to evict bachelors living several to a room in some of the poorer areas of the city. However, people living in villas in Jumeirah, Um Suqeim, Al Barsha and The Springs said they were yet to move. "I still haven't received a notice from the municipality," said one resident, an architect living in a shared villa with his friends in Jumeirah. "We're doing the 'head in the sand' approach and it's worked so far."
He said none of the residents in his neighbourhood had received eviction notices. Instead he and his housemates were hoping the municipality was concentrating its efforts on the poorer districts of Dubai where villas were housing up to 30 people. "We don't have partitioning in the villas here like they do there," he said. "We're not a drain on the services." However, the municipality maintains that the campaign is aimed at all living in shared villas in Dubai.
The architect said the evictions were damaging Dubai's reputation. "Those that live in villas are those who are the driving force behind Dubai's development, and evicting these people is causing huge problems and essentially shooting Dubai in the foot," he said. "Young professionals are the driving force and these are the people getting chucked out." Another resident, who has been living in a villa in Al Barsha for the past 10 months, said he was worried he would be forced to move. He is living in a villa with nine others. "I feel that if they wanted us out they would've come knocking by now," he said. "I can't afford to live anywhere else, so I am going to stay here and wait it out."
One resident in Um Suqiem, who wished to remain anonymous, said the tenants in his villa told officials from the municipality who had come for an inspection that they were all related and therefore living as one family under the same roof. "We're not related, but we managed to pass the test," he said. The security was short-lived however, as the landlord of the villa has now decided to give them 30 days to move out, with no explanation and no option of paying a higher rent. "Now I am in the same situation as everyone else and I don't know where to go," he said. "I have to either find other people to share with or leave the country."
nsamaha@thenational.ae pmenon@thenational.ae
