ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani on Sunday chaired a meeting to address Baghdad’s housing crisis, discussing an 11,000-unit housing project for Sadr City, the capital’s most densely populated suburb. Sudani and the Higher Committee for Construction and Investment discussed “the adopted economic model for the New Sadr City Project, which covers the nature and distribution of buildings and housing units, amounting to 11,000 units in the first phase,” said a statement from Sudani’s office. Sadr City, home to more than one million low-income households, is named after late Shiite scholar Ayatollah Mohammed Sadr, father of influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. It is regarded as among Baghdad’s poorest districts and was named Saddam City during former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baathist rule. It suffers from poor infrastructure, overcrowding, and a lack of development, and was the site of major battles between US and Iraqi forces following the 2003 US invasion. The project also includes “commercial areas, green spaces, and the provision of infrastructure,” according to the statement. In Iraq’s 2021 election, Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc won the largest share of seats, but deadlock with the Coordination Framework - of which Sudani is a member - pushed him to withdraw his lawmakers from parliament. He has boycotted the upcoming November elections, while Sudani is seeking to strengthen his position as he eyes a second term. Sudani described the Sadr City housing project as “one of the government’s plans to address the housing crisis, particularly in Baghdad, which continues to experience rapid population growth,” stressing that it is “exclusively allocated” to Sadr City residents and will provide subsidized units at prices that “align with the citizen’s level of income.”
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