Agency closes down 55 Benhil apartments

Agency closes down 55 Benhil apartments

JAKARTA (JP): The city housing agency has closed 55 low-cost
apartments in Bendungan Hilir (Benhil), Central Jakarta, because
their owners had sold the units.

Ongky Sukasah, head of the agency, said yesterday the action
was a continuation of the agency's recent operation to encourage
owners to use their apartments.

Ongky said there were 120 other units which would be closed
soon.

He said the agency would give the closed units to other people
who were still living in slums.

Ongky said the agency took the action because the main goal of
the administration's low-cost apartments was to provide better
housing for the needy, especially those who live in slums.

"Half of the price of the apartments was subsidized by the
administration in an effort to help eligible people afford to buy
the apartments. The program will not serve its purpose if they
sell the apartment to other people," he said.

Ongky said his office would take similar action in other low-
cost apartments built by the administration, like Tambora in West
Jakarta, if it found the original owners had sold the apartments.

The agency carried out the operation in Bendungan Hilir after
press reports that most owners had sold their apartments.

The sale of the apartments is illegal because the residents'
contracts prohibits owners selling the apartments if they have
not lived there for five years.

The residents are also required to move into the apartment
within three months of getting the keys from the agency. Most of
the residents got their keys in May this year.

However, six months after the keys were given about 30 percent
of the apartments are still unoccupied.

The Bendungan Hilir complex was built in 1994 on a plot of
land which used to be a slum area.

The city administration has been intensifying the development
of low-cost apartments in the city in an effort to provide decent
housing for Jakartans who live in shanties in slum areas.

Since 1985 the administration has built 12,356 units of low-
cost apartment. (yns)