Rize residents protest TOKİ housing costs: “We do not want to leave our homes and pay debt for 15 years”

Residents of Rize’s Yağlıtaş neighborhood blocked a local road and demanded justice over a stalled urban transformation project. They say the homes they have waited years to replace are now being priced far beyond their means.

The redevelopment began in 2019 under Rize Municipality and Turkey’s Housing Development Administration, known as TOKİ. The 170 rights holders say their existing properties were valued at roughly 2 million lira, while the new homes offered to them would cost between 5.5 million and 6.5 million lira.

Residents said they had originally been promised a home in exchange for a home, with no one left disadvantaged. They now fear that the proposed terms would force them to abandon both their houses and the neighborhood culture built around them. After making their statements, they applauded and chanted, “We want justice.”

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How am I supposed to buy a house with this? They are taking my home away from me. Are they going to put up a tent? Then I will live in a tent. I just want a shack over my head.

Nezaket Peçe, a 60-year-old resident who lives on her father’s pension, said she could not afford a new home. “How am I supposed to buy a house with this? They are taking my home away from me. Are they going to put up a tent? Then I will live in a tent. I just want a shack over my head,” she said.

Other residents said they included pensioners, civil servants and people living on the minimum wage. One resident described the neighborhood’s detached houses and close ties between neighbors as a culture being destroyed. Residents said they did not want to give up debt-free homes only to spend 15 years repaying loans, and called for either homes in exchange for their homes or an end to the project in their neighborhood.

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We are happy in our homes, happy with our neighbors and happy in our neighborhood. We have homes without debt. Instead of leaving each of our children a debt-free roof, we are leaving a system of debt that will burden us for 15 years. We do not want this.