T

he city administration plans to evict 12,000 families occupying riverbanks this year, in order to speed up its river normalization program.

Housing and Government Building'€™s Agency head Ika Lestari Aji said that half of the targeted families had been evicted. However, only 1,000 had been relocated to rusunawa (low-cost apartments).

'€œThis year we aim to evict and relocate roughly 12,000 families occupying riverbanks across the city. However, due to a lack of empty rusunawa units, not all will receive a new home right away,'€ Ika told The Jakarta Post at City Hall recently.

Ika said that there were no empty rusunawa units left for residents this year. Evicted residents, she said, would need to survive on their own, while waiting for rusunawa construction to be completed next year.

'€œFor the time being, evicted residents who have not received an apartment unit must find a place to stay on their own,'€ she said, adding that the city administration would not assist the residents to find a temporary place to stay.

Ika assured those concerned that the city administration would prioritize apartment units for those who needed them, once construction had been completed next year.

The city administration'€™s harsh eviction policy has left some Jakartans stranded without a place to stay. On May 27, 114 families in Pinangsia, West Jakarta, were evicted. Only a few of them, however, were relocated to Marunda Rusunawa in North Jakarta, while the others were rejected because there were no more available units.

In a recent eviction in Kampung Pulo, East Jakarta, the administration forced 1,040 families to relocate to Rusunawa Jatinegara, an area that could only accommodate around half of the households, while the others were advised to move to Cipinang Besar and Komaruddin Rusunawa in Cakung, East Jakarta.

'€œNext year we will have tens of thousands of new rusunawa units. Evicted residents will be prioritized for the rusunawa and will thus be entitled to rent a unit,'€ Ika said.

This year, Ika said that her agency had started the construction of 2,400 rusunawa units.

City-owned developer PT Jakarta Propertindo (Jakpro) will also begin the construction of 21,000 rusunawa units. Private developers such as Summarecon and Intiland have also started the construction of their own rusunawa as part of their responsibility to the city administration.

Despite the housing backlog, Ika said that there was no turning back. The city administration, she said, would not stop the evictions.

'€œThe city administration'€™s programs must continue. Without the relocation, the programs may be hampered,'€ she said.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) researcher Gusti Ayu Ketut Surtiari, who is currently conducting research on the effectiveness of adaptation programs related to disaster risk reduction, said that during her doctoral research she encountered several evicted residents who had not received a rusunawa.

Her research was carried out last September in various areas across North Jakarta. Around the Pluit reservoir where hundreds of residents were evicted, Ayu found that some had not been relocated to a rusunawa.

'€œSome of them rented a home nearby, while others sent their children back to their hometowns and temporarily stayed in Jakarta to work as the family'€™s breadwinner,'€ said Ayu, who is also a doctoral candidate at the UN University Institute for Environment and Human Security.

Separately, Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama promised that the city administration would not evict residents without a rusunawa for relocation.

'€œWe provide a rusunawa for those who need one. Not all evictees need to be relocated to a rusunawa because some are already well-off,'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall recently.