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Meeting plans future for better housing
Public and private stakeholders participated in a workshop Tuesday to determine future plans for city housing
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Public and private stakeholders participated in a workshop Tuesday to determine future plans for city housing.
“The workshop involved the city administration, stakeholders, architects and NGOs,” Inne SB Rifayantina, a spokeswoman for the Humanitarian Volunteer Network (JRK), told The Jakarta Post.
The event was held by the city’s Government Building and Housing Agency and the Spatial Planning Agency.
According to Inne, the workshop marked the first time the administration had involved NGOs in city planning. “Usually, the authorities only call on us for curative solutions, such as managing displaced residents.”
City authorities have been criticized for their failure to tackle the city’s main problems of flooding and heavy traffic congestion.
The administration typically solves these problems by evicting people living in soon-to-be-developed areas and relocating them to flats, which are usually built after the evictions.
“There are many other solutions apart from building flats for people,” Sri Palupi, head of the Institute for Ecosoc Rights, who spoke at the workshop, said.
“Different communities require different solutions, and that was the message we were trying to get across yesterday.”
Other representatives from NGOs included head of JRK Sandyawan Sunardi, Wardah Hafidz from the Urban Poor Consortium and Dodo Juliman, head of UN Habitat Indonesia.
The workshop’s guest list also included members from the private sector such as head of Real Estate Indonesia’s environmental division Johannes Tulung, and the chairman of Jakarta’s Indonesian Architects Association Ahmad Djuhara. “All invited stakeholders and experts were present at the event,” Sri said.
Representatives from the financial sector included the director of the DKI Jakarta Bank Winny E. Hassan, while representatives from the administration included M. Agus Subardono, head of the city’s Government Building and Housing agency.
Aside from discussing the need for community participation in city planning, the workshop also discussed possible alternatives to settling housing costs with the director of the philanthropy agency Dompet Dhuafa, Ismail.
Head of the city’s Land Agency Muh. Ikhsan spoke about settling Jakarta’s land problems for housing purposes.
Inne said the workshop revealed the poor coordination between government bodies.
“There is a lot of political interest involved in city planning, and most of the time a government body, such as the housing agency, has little knowledge of what the official departments are doing,” she complained.
However, Inne said the workshop was signalled the possibility of more collaborative arrangements in the future.
“It’s a start,” she said. (dis)
