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View all search resultsSenen shantytown residents in limbo over promised homes
People who were living along the railway tracks in Senen were forcibly uprooted on Friday when heavy equipment allegedly rolled in to tear down their makeshift dwellings, before authorities had arranged temporary housing and the groundbreaking for a new Rusun project still weeks away.
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Good optics: People crowd around President Prabowo Subianto (center, in tan cap) at Pasar Senen Station on March 26, 2026, during an impromptu visit to an informal railside settlement in Senen, Central Jakarta. (Antara/Handout/Press, Media, and Information Bureau of the Presidential Secretariat)
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nhabitants of informal railside settlements in Senen, Central Jakarta, are now living in limbo after authorities ordered them to clear their makeshift homes on March 20, just one day after President Prabowo Subianto made an impromptu visit and promised them decent housing elsewhere.
Following her eviction, Nurhasanah, 23, a busker who grew up in the densely populated area, was left without the small tent that had provided shelter, looking after her 4-month-old baby along the railway tracks.
“Eviction threats are nothing new to us,” she said. “But the latest eviction hurts more because the President just visited us and promised us Rusun [low-cost apartments]”.
On Friday morning, the Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and state railway company KAI deployed heavy machinery to clear dozens of makeshift homes, according to several residents who witnessed the demolition.
But when The Jakarta Post visited the area on Sunday, many people had rebuilt their homes and food stalls dotted the tracks behind nearby Gaplok Market, just to the east of the Gatot Soebroto Central Army Hospital and around 4 kilometers southeast of the Presidential Palace Complex.
Some residents who had returned said they were undeterred by the eviction order because finding a new place to live was virtually impossible.
“Renting a house or a room is not that easy, especially for a busker like me,” said Nurhasanah.
