Christmas Eve and Christmas night are events that are still relevant today, and not just a description of a significant event from the past when God came to man.
Many young couples experience Christmas all year round, because it is very difficult for them to get the home they need, the apartment they need. Although at first it may be seen as something that happened once, more than 2000 years ago, this event is also relevant in modern Europe and in modern democratic Slovenia. Even today, we have Marys and Josephs with their child, who are looking for housing, who have to find their way and literally be lucky in life to even get an apartment.
Mary and Joseph had to travel to the town of Bethlehem, where they were taking a census. They had to go there because the state demanded it, notwithstanding the fact that pregnant Mary was not in the best shape to travel. It is the same today, but in a different form. At the very least, before the birth, the mother has to arrange health insurance with the state, sick leave if she is employed, a series of ante-natal check-ups and a home to ensure that the child comes to a nice environment.
Housing for young people turned to mere promises
And it is homes that are becoming a bigger and bigger problem, even though the current government is promising a huge number of new homes that are nowhere near being real. So, the only thing we are left with are promises – to which we have become quite uncritically accustomed – and the great need of pregnant mothers for suitable housing.
It is very difficult for young people today to get a home. If they are lucky, their parents give them part of their house to set up a modest home in. This is not the stable where Mary gave birth to Jesus, but sometimes, it is not much better than that. However, this is not what young people, young parents and their children, who rightly want to have a home and a family in modern Slovenia, need.
Although the government promised to build 30,000 new homes this term, we can only dream of this now that the government’s term is coming to an end. In fact, the Minister of Solidarity-Based Future, Simon Maljevac, is cutting the ribbons at the opening ceremonies of housing that began to be built during the previous, Janez Janša government. The state has long procedures for starting construction, and there is always a shortage of money, so no new housing is available. The promised 30,000 apartments can only be dreamed of by young families in Slovenia today, and they have to be very resourceful in acquiring a modest home. If I understand the recent discussions on housing correctly, Slovenia has 12,000 unoccupied housing units, while we have a huge housing need among young people.
Modern Marys and Josephs
So, modern Marys who have decided to give birth travel with their Josephs from apartment to apartment, from rent to rent, spending a lot of money that they would otherwise want to spend on their child, but unfortunately have to spend on abnormally high, exploitative rents for small, often too modest premises. Modern Josephs work all day for a guaranteed personal income so that the family can pay the rent and live modestly, hoping that one day, they will finally have a place of their own.
And in light of all of this, we wonder why we have fewer and fewer births every year. The answer is: if young people have nowhere to put their cradles, they will not have children either, because modern contraceptive methods allow them to use birth control. That is why many Marys who want a child push the pregnancy towards their 40s, hoping that the couple will have managed to get at least an approximately suitable place for the child by then. In the meantime, they go from office to office, from commission to commission, from mayor to mayor, from the social work centre to the healthcare centre and other official institutions in order to obtain a suitable place to live. Even if they want to have more children, modern women, as a rule, only have as many as the environment in which they live and the conditions in which they live allow them, not to mention the pressure that some employers put on young women because employers do not want them to go on sick leave or maternity leave.
The problem of family planning
Modern Marys are educated, employed and building their professional careers. Naturally, with inadequate living conditions and work pressures, they usually choose to have no more than two children, because for most, the desire to have children and the desire to have a career cannot always be reconciled in the face of a poor supply of suitable housing.
This is why modern mothers are also under a great deal of pressure to plan the birth of their children, and why, unfortunately, there are also unplanned abortions, which are often wrongly blamed on the mothers who have them, forgetting the fault of society, which does not allow mothers and families to live in orderly conditions that allow them enough space and time to plan and bring up their children and, at the same time, allow them to have more children as well. It is unacceptable that, with such widespread access to contraceptives, there are still abortions, but unfortunately, it is a real fact of life in our society, which should make greater efforts to prevent the need for abortions and to provide more housing for young people.
Just as Mary and Joseph went from home to home asking for accommodation two thousand years ago, today, young families go from flat to flat and are often turned away because they have a child, and often the rent is so high that two young people on modest incomes cannot afford it. So, they live in makeshift rooms with their parents or in spaces for which they pay exorbitant rents and which are not even fit to be called apartments. After more than 2000 years, up until today, society has not been able to provide housing for young people, which is one of the reasons why we have fewer and fewer children and all the problems that follow.
I wonder whether it is even possible to solve this problem if we have not even been able to solve it in over 2000 years. My answer is yes, but not with the policy we have now, which prevents young people from getting access to housing. There must be a change in society’s approach to young people, and there must be a change in our perception of young people, who are the only ones who can bear children. Without children, we cannot have the future that we want so much. For once, we will have to break with the tradition that started with Joseph and Mary and provide young people with a suitable environment for their professional development and for starting a family in a safe home.
We can only do this by changing the current policy, which promises us something it is incapable of delivering – 30,000 new homes. By 2026, at the latest, it will be time for change.
Dr Milan Krek
