"When you build a new house!"

Last night, Motzei Shabbos, the Satmar Rebbe shlit"a visited the home of HaRav R' Moshe Yosef Wertheimer, where R' Moshe Yosef signed a contract before the Rebbe on the occasion of purchasing a major zechus within the new Heichal HaTorah being built on a huge new floor through the "Mivtzar HaKollelim" in Kiryas Joel.
During the conversations, the Rebbe told R' Moshe Yosef that several years ago the Rebbe had asked him to bring details on apartment prices and construction costs, and he can now tell him that a plan is moving forward to build very inexpensive apartments for members of our community who struggle to find an apartment.
The Rebbe related that last week a young man came in and said that he had put down a deposit on an apartment in the Bloomingrove area of Kiryas Joel, and no more and no less, he is paying a fantastic 1.2 million dollars for it! (This is for 3000 square feet, plus a basement of 1500 raw square feet. It comes out to nearly 400 dollars per built square foot, the same high price being paid now in the center of Kiryas Joel.)
"It did not let me sleep!" the Rebbe said. "There is already a separate Jewish village there, there is enough large land, and such a price?!"
The Rebbe continued that regarding Chevron, someone came to say that he wants to buy, and they are asking close to 500 dollars per square foot! And when he asked, "When will it be ready?" they answered, "In about 5 years!"
And the Rebbe asks: "They are not even building yet, perhaps he won't even build, perhaps he will break the contract and have to beg for money?! Why pay such money?!"
Here the Rebbe told those present some quiet news: "Since people are talking about 5 years from now, I want to say that by then I hope to have apartments to live in, for under 200 a square foot!"
The Rebbe related that in recent times he has been sitting with plans and with the Kiryas Joel administration, and is working out an approach for such a mitzvah project, dedicated only to members of our community, only to graduates of our holy yeshivas, and built in an inexpensive manner so that such a price can come about. "The way they built in the past, when I lived on Carter Lane," the Rebbe said, bringing out that we need to bring back the standards of the past and thus not have to pay such astronomical prices.
"The land does not yet have sewage," the Rebbe said, "but within 5 years it can already be, IY"H."
This comes after the Rebbe has already been engaged for a long time in finding a solution to the sky-high problem, as so many members of the community come in to pour out their hearts that they cannot afford today's apartment prices, which are jumping so high.
In the last 4 weeks the matter has moved a bit closer. The Rebbe called in various builders and went over the numbers, how much such a project needs to cost. Then the Rebbe spoke with the Kiryas Joel administration, and worked out various proposals for where IY"H to set up land for such a project.
The main principles the Rebbe set down as his plan are:
1) The apartments should be built in the old style without today's luxuries (no 9-foot ceilings, no central air conditioning, no spot lights, an inexpensive kitchen, no expensive tiles)
2) Especially for members of our community, upright members of the kehilla
3) It is an apartment to live in, not for real estate (it cannot be sold onward, but is sold back to the kehilla)
4) The apartment is paid for gradually during construction, so that the builders won't need to take a construction loan (details are still being worked out by the Rebbe)
Regarding the inexpensive style of building, the Rebbe said, "One can live with plain smooth doors, without tiles in the bathroom on all sides. I still live like that now on Sans Court..."
The Rebbe said that he hopes to succeed because the requests of young couples are very serious, Jews are sighing bitterly and have no roof over their heads. "I cannot bear it," the Rebbe said, continuing, "That is why I am telling this, so that people should know that they need not buy now for 5 years from now! There will be, IY"H, inexpensive apartments, not fancy apartments, apartments to live in!"

"When you build a new house... you shall not place blood in your house."

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