Poverty main cause of housing deprivation

PETALING JAYA: The Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) released a report on Wednesday, titled “Decent Shelter for the Urban Poor: A Study of Program Perumahan Rakyat (People’s Housing Programme)”, that included three policy recommendations for fixing structural problems and developing a long-term strategy for providing social housing in Malaysia.

The recommendations will focus on the management of housing under the People’s Housing Programme (PHP) as well as in the private sector. It also included a change in social housing policies from one of construction to one of management.

The research found that more than 60% of households in five of the residential flats surveyed lived in poverty and earned less than RM2,208. The survey was conducted at the PHP in Beringin, Taman Wahyu, Kerinchi, Salak Selatan and Jalan Sungai. It was also noted that over 21% of the respondents were categorised as “hardcore poor”, earning less than RM1,038.

It added that poverty was more prevalent among households headed by part-time workers (80.6%), pensioners (72.1%), housewives (70.5%) and those unemployed (70.6%).

According to the survey, 35% of the household heads were self-employed or part-time workers, while 13% had tertiary education. The majority of the residents were renters, 20% of PHP dwellers in Kuala Lumpur were owner-occupiers.

KRI chairman Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said the main factor affecting ownership was poverty and not housing.

“The social sector primarily houses residents due to poverty or those categorised as ‘economically vulnerable’. Historically, the provision of public housing by the state was to provide shelter for the high numbers of squatters caused by increased rural-urban migration, which began in the 1970s.

“Over the years, public housing programmes evolved into social housing, such as PHP, and targeted at providing shelter for poor households.”

Nor Mohamed added that the provision of social housing by the government was considered a solution for housing the poor with better living conditions compared with squatter settlements. But it inadvertently created new problems of “poor housing for the poor” in stratified buildings.

“All residential flats remain of poor quality due to inadequate funding for maintenance and repair works, where most buildings do not provide scheduled maintenance services to prevent further building decay.

“This is more severe in higher density flats, which may pose a threat to positive living conditions and increase the cost of maintenance to those who own the units.”

Nor Mohamed recommended solutions involving policies to alleviate poverty and to avoid the negative consequences of housing deprivation leading to homelessness, and the inability to lead a life of value.

“Therefore, state support in the form of housing subsidies, general income support and other social programmes are required. A significant proportion of households (and not just the poor) will require social housing if the general affordability of housing is left unattended.”

He said, given that access to the housing market is primarily determined by a household’s ability to pay for a suitable home, the government must also monitor the general level of housing affordability within the city council.

“The high unaffordability of housing supplied by the private sector may increase the number of households that could ‘fall into’ the social sector.”

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