YLKI demands transparency in land-use policy
YLKI demands transparency in land-use policy
JAKARTA (JP): Low-income earners have increasingly less access
to land in the city due to the lack of transparency in land use
and housing policy, said an executive of the Indonesian Consumers
Foundation ((YLKI).
Zumrotin K. Soesilo said yesterday the public should be able
to monitor the development of land allocated for low-cost
housing, which would prevent the land being sold to developers
catering to higher income consumers.
"Now we do not know which plots are set aside for poor
residential space," Zumrotin said.
In Klender, East Jakarta, for instance, the land owned by the
State Housing Company (Perumnas) was not considered strategic in
1975.
Perumnas' main task is to provide housing to low-income
bracket families.
"The company did nothing with the land. By the 1980s the land
was put up for sale to private developers. Of course, the prices
of the homes built and sold in the area was beyond the reach of
low-income residents," Zumrotin said.
"The chance for low-income people to live in the area
disappeared," she said, adding that many other strategic plots in
the city have been sold to private developers.
Zumrotin was responding to a suggestion from an official of
the city housing agency that ownership of low-income apartments
should not include the land the apartments stand on. Residents of
apartments share ownership of the land.
The official who requested anonymity told The Jakarta Post
last Friday that prices could become lower for former slum
dwellers if apartment applicants were only entitled to own the
apartments which measure 21 square meters, now priced at Rp 26
million (US$11,304)
Former slum dwellers often say they cannot afford the
apartments even with a government subsidy of 50 percent.
"If the land remains a government asset the consumers will
have even less legal guarantee to stay," Zumrotin said, because
the government could sell the land at anytime.
Zumrotin also responded to complaints of low-cost apartment
dwellers that they cannot keep up with the various monthly fees,
which are apart from their mortgage repayments. Many have sold
their dwellings to live in less costly areas.
"Economically these fees are very low," Zumrotin said. "But
the economic gap leads to strong reactions against increasing the
price of anything. The people can't take it anymore."
Djunaedi Hamin, the head of the occupants' organization at the
Tanah Abang apartments, said earlier it is very difficult to
raise monthly fees for the organization, which now stand at Rp
3,000. Among others, this covers electricity fees to pump water
from the ground to upper floors.
Residents of the 960 apartments pay another Rp 5,000 to their
neighborhood head. On top of this there are monthly water, gas
and electricity bills to pay.
Endang, a civil servant at the Tanah Abang apartments, said it
is increasingly hard to live there with a family of five and pay
monthly installments and fees nearing Rp 100,000.
He said he agrees with his neighbors and wants to sell his
apartment which he acquired in the early 1980s when the
apartments were prioritized for homeless low-income people.
Djunaedi said of the 960 apartments, less than 40 percent are
inhabited by their original owners.
The apartments were originally priced at Rp 7 million and can
now be sold for Rp 60 million, he said, as many people want to
buy the apartments to rent out.
"The requisite that applicants must show notices from
neighborhood heads stating that they are homeless can be easily
abused," he said.
Yusuf Usman, an official at the city housing agency, said the
agency is still trying to keep low-income residents in the
apartments built for them.
On-going negotiations between the agency and state-owne
electricity company PLN and water company PDAM Jaya will
hopefully produce an agreement on lower fees to be paid by
apartment dwellers, Yusuf said. (anr)