Low-cost apartments only for ID-holders

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Evicted fishermen who do not possess Jakarta ID cards are not entitled to rent low-cost apartments in Muara Angke, North Jakarta, and are forced to return to their hometown in Indramayu regency, West Java.

Governor Sutiyoso said on Friday at the ground-breaking ceremony of the 1.6-hectare apartment project that the building, constructed by Taiwan-based charity Tzu Chi Foundation, would be provided only for Jakarta citizens.

The foundation deputy chairman, Sugianto Kusuma, said that the foundation would only be responsible for the construction of 600 apartments, worth Rp 40 billion (US$4.76 million) in the first phase.

"The city administration is registering those eligible to rent the apartments. We will crosscheck the names of those who come to rent the apartments with the city's list of residents," he said.

The construction is scheduled to be completed in January next year but Sutiyoso demanded that the project be completed by the end of this year.

"I insist that the apartments are finished by the end of this year so that the evictees will have a place to live," he said.

The planned apartments will be in a five-story building. Each 36-square-meter unit will consist of two bedrooms, a bathroom, a family room and a kitchen. All 600 units will be fully furnished with a wooden bed, a bunk-bed, wardrobes in each bedroom and a plastic dining table with six plastic chairs.

Each family will be required to pay Rp 90,000 (US$10.7) a month plus utilities. The fee will cover the cost of garbage collection, security and maintenance of green spaces. It will also have communal facilities including a school, a hospital and a soccer field.

The apartment is the second project of the foundation after Cinta Kasih apartments, a 1,100 apartment complex for the low- income bracket people in East Cengkareng, West Jakarta.

Over 1,000 fishermen's families living on the banks of Muara Angke River were evicted from their homes last October. Most of them have lived there for more than 30 years but still could not obtain Jakarta ID cards.

Fortunately, Indramayu Regent Irianto M.S. Syafiuddin said last December that his administration had allocated a four- hectare plot of land at Song Beach to house approximately 220 fishermen's families evicted from Jakarta. Around Rp 30 billion had been allocated to build the houses. The project was scheduled to be started in January and completed in March.