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fforts to relocate residents living in slum areas to decent housing in the Central Java city of Surakarta are making little progress because of a lack of funds.

According to official data, there are currently 11,036 substandard housing units spread out across 28 slum areas in three districts of Surakarta, the birth city of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.

“The budget is limited. The city administration only has the capacity to develop a maximum of 1,000 decent houses per year,” Saryanto, who heads the housing division at the Surakarta Housing, Residential Areas and Agrarian Agency, said recently.

As a result, the city would fail to meet the national target of having zero substandard housing by 2019.

According to the city’s medium-term development plan, the housing improvement program should be accomplished by 2021, but Saryanto said that, given the budget constraints, the program could only be completed by 2027 at the soonest.

He explained that, of the 1,000 housing units to be built this year, 418 would be funded by special allocated funds (DAK) from the central government, 409 would be developed through a Central Java provincial program, 100 would be built using Rp 1.5 billion (US$112,000) from the Surakarta city budget and the reminder would be funded under corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

Saryanto said that, under the city’s housing improvement program, the inhabitants of each substandard housing unit were entitled to a maximum of Rp 15 million in funds from the city to buy building materials and renovate their abode.

“The housing improvement funds for substandard houses is only to cover repairs or improvements to roofs, flooring and walls. Thus, a budget of Rp 15 million should suffice,” he said.

To be considered eligible under the program, Saryanto said, the housing unit had to belong to a poor family and sit on land the family legally owns.

Separately, Surakarta Mayor FX Hadi “Rudy” Rudyatmo said he had invited a number of companies to participate in the effort through CSR programs in a bid to accelerate the housing improvement program.

“It would not be a huge problem if we cannot achieve the national target. However, if the central government wants us to comply with the target, it should give us more money,” said Rudy.

The mayor said the city administration was also cooperating with state-own enterprises, the Indonesian Military and civil society groups to expedite the program.

Late last year, the government received a $762 million loan from the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Islamic Development Bank for the Kotaku program that would affect 19 million people located in more than 23,000 hectares of slum areas in 29 cities and regencies around the country.

According to the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, there were 38,000 ha of slum areas in the country as of 2014. The government improved only 2,500 ha of the total in 2016.

The Kotaku program focuses on the construction of basic facilities in slums, including drainage systems, waste management, drinking water access and sanitation.