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Evictees face low quality of life in Rusunawa
A place called home: A woman does household chores in her new home on the ground floor of the Muara Baru low-cost apartment building, North Jakarta, last week
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A place called home: A woman does household chores in her new home on the ground floor of the Muara Baru low-cost apartment building, North Jakarta, last week. The ground floor was originally earmarked for public facilities. The Jakarta provincial administration plans to relocate 12,000 families to make way for the Ciliwung River revitalization project, but has managed to make available only 5,000 apartment units so far.(JP/Seto Wardhana) (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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span class="inline inline-center">A place called home: A woman does household chores in her new home on the ground floor of the Muara Baru low-cost apartment building, North Jakarta, last week. The ground floor was originally earmarked for public facilities. The Jakarta provincial administration plans to relocate 12,000 families to make way for the Ciliwung River revitalization project, but has managed to make available only 5,000 apartment units so far.(JP/Seto Wardhana)
Hartono, 48, wiped the sweat from his forehead after he finished installing the new door lock for a Rusunawa (low-cost rented apartment) unit that he recently moved into with his wife and their three children.
'My family can feel safer now, because the previous door lock had been broken for a few days. Finally some good news during this terrible time,' he told The Jakarta Post.
The Hartonos and dozens of other families have been living in the Muara Baru Rusunawa in North Jakarta since Sept. 29, when officers from the Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) dismantled their settlement on the Kali Gendong riverbanks, North Jakarta, to push ahead with the Gendong River normalization program.
For Hartono, watching the city officials destroy his family home of 10 years was a very traumatic experience. However, what they had to go through afterward was even worse, .
'Soon after Satpol PP officials evicted us, they brought us to this Rusunawa compound and dropped us in an open space just like delivering dozens of cardboard boxes,' he continued.
For a few days, Hartono and his family inhabited a space on the Rusunawa's ground floor that was previously designated for shopping stalls as well as social and public facilities.
Without any walls to protect them from rain and evening breeze, he said his family were lucky not to catch fever before they were finally relocated to an apartment unit in the compound.
However, things had not gotten better for Hartono and his family, as the 15-square meter apartment did not leave them enough space to have their own kitchen or even restroom. He said his family should share two public restrooms with dozens of other evictees and Rusunawa construction workers.
The tiny apartment falls short of the standards for urban housing as recommended by the National Standardization Agency (SNI). The agency guidelines state that in order to have sufficient fresh air, a family of two adults and three children needs 100 square meters or around eight times the size of the Hartonos' unit.
'My family can hardly sleep since we moved here. The feeling of guilt for failing to provide a decent life for them is unbearable,' Hartono said as tears dripped down his cheeks.
He seemed at a loss for words when asked if he had any other place to live. 'I don't have any idea. I will try to figure it out later,' he said.
The city administration plans to evict 12,000 families occupying riverbanks this year, in order to speed up its river normalization program. The policy, however, has received a mixed response from the public as it left some marginalized Jakartans without a place to stay.
Furthermore, due to the housing backlog, only 1,000 of the targeted families have been relocated to Rusunawa.
Sarinah, another evictee from the Gendong riverbanks, said she was forced to spend Rp 20,000 (US$1.39) each day to buy clean water for washing and drinking, as the apartment water was not clean, meaning that she had to shell out around Rp 600,000 per month for water alone.
'Not to mention the electricity bill, we can spend more than a million to live here,' she said.
She added that she could survive due to the Rp 10 million in compensation she received from city officials who demolished her previous settlement, even though Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama had repeatedly said that he would not provide any compensation to the relocated residents.
'That's the only thing I have for now,' she said, adding that she hoped she could be relocated to another area with lower living costs.
Gustara Muhammad, head of the community unit 17 where the Gendong riverbank evictees are located, said that according to the latest information he had, the evictees would be relocated to another area, as the current apartment unit was not livable.
'However, I have not yet informed the evictees as I have received no further details regarding the issue,' he said.
He added that based on his data, there were more than 2,000 more residents on the Gendong riverbanks who were anxious about possible evictions.
