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akarta Governor Anies Baswedan’s housing program is in limbo with the administration having scrapped a budget for the development of three apartments in the city recently, potentially leaving thousands of poor residents without proper housing.

The agency has discarded a budget of Rp 712 billion (US$4.9 million) for the development of low-cost apartments (Rusunawa) on Jl. Inspeksi BKT in Ujung Menteng and PIK Pulogadung in Penggilingan, Cakung East Jakarta, and renovation of apartments in Karang Anyar, Sawah Besar, Central Jakarta.

The three apartment complexes are set to have eight towers and a total of 1,951 apartments.

With the budget removal, the city administration would not build new low-cost apartments this year, thus it would only finish construction projects that had begun in the previous year.

Acting Jakarta Public Housing and Settlement Agency head Meli Budiastuti said the budget had been removed because the agency had run out of time to finish construction this year.

Technical problems related to proposing a single-year project scheme, instead of a multiyear scheme, had compromised construction.

Meli said it took about 14 months to complete one apartment project, therefore the development should have been conducted through a multiyear scheme.

However, the agency was not able to propose a multiyear scheme because of the leadership change in the city last year.

To propose a multiyear scheme, the city administration is required to report the planned project to the City Council. The council will then form a special committee to oversee the project and make sure the budget for the project is sufficient for the next two or three years.

Nevertheless, prevailing regulations, which stipulate a scheme cannot be proposed six months before a new governor is inaugurated, have impeded the budgeting process, Meli said.

“The budget had been arranged since April 2017 because the budgeting process was quite lengthy. Meanwhile, the new governor was inaugurated later in October,” Meli told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Therefore, the housing agency, which was then led by Agustino Darmawan, had proposed the development through a single-year scheme, even though it was impossible for the agency to finish the project within that limited time frame.

Following the budget elimination, Meli said the agency would propose developing the three apartment complexes in 2019.

“We also plan to build apartments in Cakung Barat and renovate an apartment in Penjaringan. Therefore, we will develop five apartment projects next year,” Meli said.

In the meantime, 9,430 residents that had applied for the low-cost apartments would be able to reside in low-cost apartments in 12 areas with projects set to be completed this year, she said.

The agency’s failure to develop new apartments has been met with criticism.

City councillor Manuara Siahaan said the city administration’s budgeting process had lacked thorough planning. The housing agency should not only design the low-cost apartments but also the project financing scheme, he said.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician went on to say that the city administration could actually begin the project this year and continue it next year by again proposing a single-year scheme in the 2019 city budget.

Manuara added that he was worried the scrapped budget would be used for other programs that did not benefit residents.

“Where will the money go? The money should be saved in the city’s treasury. We’re worried the money will be spent on programs that had not been included in the city’s work plan,” he said.

The Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda) said in March that the housing backlog in the city had reached 302,319 apartments.

Citing the 2015 National Socioeconomic Survey, only 51 percent of Jakarta residents owned houses.