Decent Shelter For The Urban Poor: A Study of Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR)

“With adequate social opportunities, individuals can effectively shape their own destiny and help each other. They need not be seen primarily as passive recipients of the benefits of cunning development programs. There is indeed a strong rationale for recognizing the positive role of free and sustainable agency-and even of constructive impatience.”- Amartya Sen

Social housing must be seen as a management responsibility by governments; within social improvement objectives with proper filtering of households and maintenance of social housing units, rather than just as a ‘construction’ solution (i.e. based on units built). In line with Dasar Perumahan Negara 2.0 (2018 – 2025) (DRN 2.0), an enabling policy framework should aim to create a progression which enable households to move from social renting to private renting and eventually achieve home ownership. Under this framework, there is a case to be made for social housing to be classified as transition housing but with an institutionalized pathway for eligible households to ‘graduate’ into the market sector.

There is little merit in housing policies that solely focuses on the poor, in the hope that ‘the market’ will take care of the rest, without ensuring the proper functioning of the market. Findings from these case studies follows a well-known phenomenon in housing studies where the creation of a universal ‘housing queue’ makes it very difficult for the poor to have decent housing, while the not-so-poor remain ill-housed. The findings also suggest that there are extremely limited options for residents to migrate from the social to the private/market housing sector.

KRI suggests a new holistic approach in crafting social housing policies through 3 three policy thrusts with 9 key recommendations. The 3 policy thrusts envisage a change in social housing policies from being a construction solution (units built) to a management responsibility, as follows:

1. The management of PPR households: to determine eligibility beyond income levels; for example, to include household size, infirmity and physical disabilities.
2. The management of PPR housing units: to improve existing and future PPR housing standards, with multiple GFAs to accommodate different household sizes.
3. The management of private sector housing units: to prevent graduating PPR households from residing in worst-off conditions

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