Page 18 - Housing & Poverty In Malta With A Focus On The Southern Harbour Region

6. Vacant Housing In The Southern

Harbour Region

In this section of the paper, the macro approach adopted in sections 0 and 5 is
momentarily abandoned and attention is turned to the analysis of the reasons and the
causes for the existence of a voluminous vacant housing stock in the Southern Harbour
Region and its possible relationship with poverty, adopting a micro perspective. In the
opinion of the present author, the Southern Harbour Region deserves to be analysed
independently.

The Southern Harbour Region is one of the Regions designated in the Malta Geographic
Codes (MGC). The latter have been developed by the NSO according to international
standards, and they comprise the Southern Harbour Region, the Northern Harbour
Region, the South Eastern Region, the Western Region, the Northern Region, and Gozo
and Comino. The Southern Harbour Region, which will be the focus of the present section
is made up of Żabbar, Xgħajra, Valletta, Tarxien, Santa Luċija, Paola, Marsa, Luqa, Kalkara,
Senglea, Floriana, Fgura, Cospicua and Vittoriosa. It is also a region where the IRISS’s other
current studies (still in pre-publication phase) are clearly showing a concentration of
people who are at risk of material poverty. A summary of these findings has been made
available in this paper for the sake of completeness.

The region in question, despite Malta’s relative smallness, has some distinguishing
characteristics that differentiate it from the rest of the Maltese Islands. What is more,
each individual town or city comprising the Southern Harbour Region is, in its own way,
unique. On the one hand, various sociological studies indicate that Valletta, Senglea,
Floriana, Cospicua and Vittoriosa are socially deprived areas. On the other hand, one can
identify localities, such as Żabbar, Xgħajra, Tarxien, Santa Luċija, Paola, Marsa, Luqa,

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