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Providing affordable housing for all 'doable', say urbanists
A discussion involving urban experts, developers and city officials explored the issues and possible solutions to Jakarta's dearth of affordable housing.
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The KS Tubun Rusunawa apartment complex one of city's rented low-cost apartments in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta. (Jakarta Housing Agency/kompas.com/-)
F
or millions of middle- and lower-income Jakartans, owning a roof over their heads may seem an impossibility amid sky-high land prices, but some urbanists believe that providing affordable housing is not a distant dream.
Urban experts stress that better coordination between the city administration and the private sector, as well as taking the appropriate communications approach in housing and relocation projects, would generate many alternative solutions.
Jakartans that fall into the middle-income bracket generally opt to purchase a house in the suburbs and spend hours commuting every day to work in the capital.
Families in the lower-income bracket, on the other hand, are left with no choice but to rent, move in with relatives or build ad hoc settlements that gradually expand into slum areas.
Urban expert Joko Adianto, an architecture lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said that providing affordable housing in Jakarta seemed a preposterous idea because of increasing land prices, which showed no signs of abating.
“The administration could start with acquiring land through the correct approach, be it city-owned or privately owned. This will take a long time,” Joko said at a discussion on housing at SBM ITB Jakarta campus in South Jakarta on Tuesday.
“Giving people access to affordable housing doesn’t mean building apartments and roads. It should give them new lives and space to grow. Otherwise, people will be reluctant to [sign up with] the city’s housing programs,” he added.
