Approximately 350 families living in the Damietta Spinning and Weaving Company’s housing face eviction after more than half a century of residence. In August 2026, Egyptian Post delivered formal notices instructing them to leave units owned by the public-business-sector company, known as Damiatex.
The residents include retired workers, their wives and their children. They say they hold officially documented, open-ended rental contracts, some dating to 1998, and have regularly paid rents that rose from approximately EGP 19.56 to EGP 250. They also say the buildings were financed through a workers’ mutual-benefit fund deducted from salaries as part of the company’s social welfare system.
In recent weeks, residents posted appeals on social media to Damietta Governor Hossam El Din Fawzy Abdel Fattah Abu Seif, the Public Business Sector Ministry, the Holding Company for Cotton, Spinning, Weaving and Clothing, and Damiatex’s management. They sought a halt to eviction after decades of service and settlement in housing associated with the company inaugurated by former president Gamal Abdel Nasser on 6 May 1960.
Ahmed Mohamed, a pseudonym for a resident whose father worked at the factory, says the homes were built in the 1960s alongside the spinning and weaving plant. Engineers, technicians and workers came from other governorates because the required specialisations were not available locally, necessitating accommodation.
The governorate allocated adjacent land for 23 residential blocks, he says. Workers helped finance construction through monthly contributions to the mutual-benefit fund.
“My father was among the company’s earliest workers,” he tells Zawia3. He says approximately 350–400 engineers, technicians and workers were called to Sinai during the 1967 war and the War of Attrition, suspending production until 1974. The plant subsequently expanded output of textiles and Egyptian long-staple cotton for export through the mid-1970s and 1980s, before later dismantling and selling parts of its assets and land.
According to Ahmed, management sued residents in the 1990s in an attempt to evict them. The governor reviewed their papers and concluded rental contracts in June 1998, at a nominal monthly rent of approximately EGP 19.56 payable to the company.
He says the contracts residents possess prohibit surrender or eviction of the units and extend residence rights to the fourth generation. Payments gradually rose from approximately EGP 20, and subsequent old-rent increases were applied. Yet in August the company began sending notices to families who had lived there for roughly five decades.
Ahmed disputes that the buildings require demolition or evacuation. There are 23 five-storey blocks, maintained and in good condition, he says. He asks for a Housing Ministry inspection to assess buildings accommodating approximately 360 families, most of them elderly. This is a resident’s estimate, alongside the approximately 350 families cited at the start of the report.
Hanan Gad’s mother, another resident for more than half a century, also received an August notice requiring her to leave without an alternative home being provided. Her late husband worked at the company for decades.
“My father died around 16 years ago after spending more than 50 years working at Damietta Spinning,” Hanan tells Zawia3. “My mother is approaching 90, is elderly and unable to walk, and still lives in one of the flats. She was recently surprised by an eviction notice, like the other residents.”
Hanan says her mother has an open-ended rental contract with monthly payments, as do other families. She fears what eviction would mean given her mother’s age, health and dependence on others for care.
Residents see their uninterrupted water, electricity, gas, waste collection and other services as evidence of established residence. Hanan urges the government, governorate and other authorities to examine their circumstances and provide appropriate alternative homes if they cannot remain.
A Documented Lease and an Archive Describing Ownership
Zawia3 obtained a rental contract for a unit in the company housing. It was made between the Damietta governor, acting as chair of the Industrial Services board and landlord, and a tenant, for private residential use under specified conditions.
The handwritten commencement date is 1 January 1998. The contract gives an end date and provides renewal for an equivalent period unless either party sends a registered letter at least three months before the expiry of the original or renewed term.
Monthly rent is EGP 19.56, payable at the start of each calendar month. The tenant must also pay 2.5% of the rent towards periodic building repairs and bear water and electricity costs.
The tenant acknowledges inspection of the unit and its suitability, undertakes to maintain it and observe rental conditions, and may not alter, demolish, build, remove structures or erect internal walls without the owner’s consent and the permits required by building laws.
The contract states that breach terminates the agreement immediately, with the tenant liable for rent for the remaining term, restoration of the unit and resulting compensation.
It also provides automatic termination without notice if a rental instalment is late, and prohibits subletting or assignment of all or part of the unit. Tenants must undertake repairs attributable to tenancy at their own expense; other repairs fall to the landlord. Ordinary courts in the area where the property is located have jurisdiction over disputes about implementation or interpretation.
By contrast, a national newspaper report dated 12 May 1998 described then-governor Ahmed Sultan signing ownership contracts for workers’ flats in exchange for land provided by the governorate. It said the arrangement sought to prevent displacement after final judgments ordering 236 retired workers out of administrative housing, out of approximately 2,000 workers living in the company’s accommodation.
According to the archived report, the company offered to pay the governorate EGP 5 million for the land beneath the housing, provided workers and families left. The governor rejected this and proposed replacement land for new administrative housing for incoming workers who had been intended to occupy the retired workers’ units.
The governor stipulated clear, advance rules for the new housing so families would not face eviction after a lifetime of service. The company’s then-chairman, engineer Ahmed Abu Touq, agreed, the newspaper reported.
The rental document obtained by Zawia3 and the newspaper’s account of ownership contracts leave an unresolved question: are residents long-term tenants or owners? The actual legal relationship has direct implications for the legitimacy of eviction. Residents’ descriptions of open-ended rights should therefore be read alongside the renewal clauses and the different archival account, rather than treated as a settled finding of ownership.
Disputes Over Employee Housing
Damiatta MP Diaa El Din Dawood rejects the handling of the residents and the notices, citing their decades of residence and their families’ history with the plant and governorate.
The factory was important to Egypt’s textile industry and Damietta’s industrial and export base, he says. State factories established during that period often provided employee housing, known as service-linked accommodation.
“Damietta was not originally a governorate known for spinning and weaving,” Dawood tells Zawia3. Workers and specialists were brought from Gharbia, Cairo, Helwan and elsewhere; many settled permanently in Damietta.
Most current residents are workers’ children who grew up in these buildings, he adds. Some original workers have died, leaving wives and children in their homes. Families have lived in the area for 40 or 50 years.
Dawood questions the basis for removing them after so long. He says he will not support evicting residents with a genuine link to the factory or workers’ families established there for decades.
He places the dispute within wider problems over housing stability and service-linked accommodation in several governorates, where companies and workers’ families have contested continuing residence rights. Damietta also has complicated land-ownership arrangements, including historical endowment land.
The issue is part of a recurring pattern in accommodation previously provided by the state or companies, he says. Different circumstances must be distinguished, particularly those of former workers, their families and children whose residence is tied to the factory’s history.
Dawood promises to use parliamentary oversight tools, including an information request at the beginning of the House’s second session in October, to discuss residents’ circumstances and monitor the measures taken.
At the time of reporting, Damiatex, the holding company and the Public Business Sector Ministry had issued no comment or statement explaining the notices’ legal basis or the availability of alternative housing.
Between eviction notices and rental documents held since 1998, questions remain about the company’s legal and administrative grounds for requiring departure after decades, and whether the notices follow new decisions or judgments or a change in the housing’s status or ownership.
