The sun was blasting its heat on Jl. Jembatan Besi in Tambora, West Jakarta, at noon on Tuesday, yet not a single ray of light hit most parts of a narrow nearby alley called Gang Venus, leaving its residents shrouded in darkness.

A lack of space and the high cost of housing in the capital have forced people there to live in houses packed from wall to wall, with roofs and upper floors protruding over the alley, leaving no gaps for natural light to sneak in.

For light, the residents rely solely on lamps hanging from what is essentially the ceiling of the alley.

“The lamps and electric fans are kept on all day while we are at home,” said 32-year-old Ardila.

“We just hang our laundry up on the little terrace ceilings to dry with the heat.”

Ardila, a beverage vendor and mother of three, is one of hundreds of residents in this community unit (RW). Born and raised here, she is accustomed to the narrowness of the houses, the biggest of which measure 30 square meters.

Only about a quarter of some 3,000 residents living in the Jembatan Besi subdistrict of Tambora district are natives of the area, which is infamous as Jakarta’s most densely populated neighborhood.

Thousands of other occupants, meanwhile, have moved to the neighborhood from other regions, and most of them are renting rooms.

Siti Munafiah, 33, a native of Semarang in Central Java, admitted that it took her a while to adjust to living in the tight space when she moved into her parents-in-law’s house in the area 13 years ago, after getting married to her husband.

The 12-square-meter ground floor of her house is filled with a refrigerator, a TV, two cupboards, a folding bed and a gas stove, leaving barely enough space for her husband, herself and their 11-year-old daughter to move.

“Fortunately, after I came here, my parents-in-law retired and returned to their hometown in Banten. Otherwise, we’d be jostling in the house, because the upper floor is now rented out to someone else,” Siti said.

Siti said when her daughter was born, the little space saw her and her husband, and many other parents, take their babies to the bigger and more open Jl. Jembatan Besi to soak in the morning sun.

Diding Haerudin, a neighborhood unit (RT) head, said out of several dense settlements in the Tambora area, his community unit was one of the most populous with an estimated 1,800 families living on 10 hectares.

“Most people here are sewers working at local clothing workshops or supermarket employees. One house may even have two or three families living in it, because some who are married are still staying with their parents,” said Diding.

“House construction like this, which has been going on for 10 years, is indeed wrong. I used to reprimand them, because there is really no sunlight coming in. They often countered that what mattered was that at least they had ventilation.”

Meanwhile, Agung Toto, 34, who resides on Jl. Jembatan Besi near the dark alley, said residents there should be aware that the dark conditions could have an impact on their health as well as their financial conditions.

“They have to spend money on lamps that are used throughout the day as a substitute for sunlight to illuminate not only their own homes, but also the hallways. They shouldn’t be too comfortable with this situation,” Agung said.

Similar conditions can be found in a narrow alley called Gang Abu in Jelambar, Grogol, West Jakarta, where houses stand back-to-back behind a row of larger houses.

About seven small houses of 9 square meters stand side by side. The rooftops extending in front of the houses for shelter from the rain come with the side effect of locking out the sun.

Behind them, a 4-meter-high wall bordering the area with the St. Kristoforus Catholic School further blocks the sunlight.

Karni, 45, one of the residents, claimed she was renting a one-story house that had not been exposed to sunlight for 26 years, along with her husband and 20-year-old son.

“Life goes on while the lights are never turned off. We try as much as possible to reduce the use of other electronic devices to reduce the cost of electricity, which is certainly not cheap,” said Karni.

“It is stuffy, but we don’t have any better option. It is quite expensive to have a place somewhere else. Accessibility is also a plus here, because it is near the train station and a bus stop.”

Many small dwellings growing uncontrolled on riverbanks and alongside railway tracks can also be found sprawling in Jakarta, reflecting the woes of urbanization in the capital city.

Just recently, the owners of a house renting out lodging spaces of only 2 square meters in Rawa Selatan, Johar Baru, Central Jakarta, were forced to close their venture for lack of a permit and because the living conditions were considered inhumane.

The construction of unlicensed housing with narrow alleys was technically wrong, West Jakarta Housing Agency head Suharyanti said, adding that the city administration was monitoring such areas in Jakarta.

“Such construction is not allowed, because the space taken up by upper floor extensions belongs to the public and should be kept for natural lighting and air,” Suharyanti told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

According to a community action plan, she added, the city administration would conduct further studies to regulate such areas and educate residents on proper construction.

“In addition, next year, we will start adding supporting facilities in dense areas by installing lights, vertical gardens, as well as some infiltration wells if needed,” she added.

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