We have similar laws here in the USA. Many towns and cities have zoning laws which dictate that one-family houses cannot be occupied by more than 4 unrelated adults.
I know of a beautiful six bedroom house (this is a house I visited when I used to go to church in that area) in a very ritzy section of the suburbs of Philadelphia (a lot of super cool church-related parties and get-togethers have been held in that house). That house is owned by a landlady who rents it out to "nice girls" (in other words, she's super picky about who she lets in, she will NOT rent to men, and does very thorough background checks on the young women who rent there--so she rents to "church-y type girls"). The rent is $2500.00 a month, and so it's too high for just four women to swing, so the landlady and FIVE young ladies all went to court to get a zoning variance to allow for THAT house to be permitted to have FIVE unrelated adults live in it. And let me tell you! Those five young ladies all dressed to the hilt for that court appearance! They showed up in the most impeccable and conservative business suits with their hair and nails perfecty groomed. The judge gladly granted them the zoning variance with no fuss.
These kinds of zoning ordinances arose in the USA (and many many regions of Europe) when the Industrial Revolution caused the overcrowding of cities and the overburdening of water supplies and sewage lines, and especially the trash removal systems.
As for this sad situation in Dubai, the city planners in Dubia really should have been on the stick from the get-go and should have prevented the situation from arising in the firts place. So now they are operating from a position of damage control. So a lot of people are about to lose their homes, causing a lot of heartache.
But I really don't blame the city of Dubai for wanting to uphold these kinds of zoning ordinances. If the local utilities and systems cannot accomodate ALLLLL those people, then they simply need to reduce the number of people per unit.
And in defense of the officials in Dubai --IF those officials are telling the truth-- they made this proclamation two whole years ago, so those residents have had two years to make other living arrangements.
“It is illegal to share a villa and partition rooms. This adds pressure on the service amenities like water, electricity and sewage leading to health and environment problems,” said Omar Abdul Rahman, head of the Building Inspection Department at Dubai Municipality.“We have given enough time for landlords and people to comply with our rules. If they don’t follow our instructions, we will be forced to disconnect the water and electricity in villas and stop all dealings with the landlord.”
But he said the municipality does not have the power to force landlords to refund rent paid in advance. “They can approach the Rent Dispute Committee of the Municipal Council if they have paid the money legally. We have nothing to do with it,” Rahman said.
He added the campaign of villa evictions was not new and was part of a concerted effort launched two years ago.
Clean water and properly functioning sewage systems are critical to a modern and civilized city to STAY civilized, especially in such a hot and sun-scorched city as Dubai. If the city officials lose a foothold on the proper usage and maintencen of the city's sewers, that's how vermin and disease can get the upper hand, and then people (espcailly poor people) could literally start dying.
As for the lack of cheap housing, I'm sorry, I can't answer for that. I myself have been faced with a lack of money and an inability to rent in the area I wanted to rent in. So it's the same all over. But I generally support efforts to enforce zoning ordinances of this nature.
