THE ‘Rent Only’ policy for tenants of the People’s Housing Project (PPR) should be reviewed to ‘Rent-To-Own’ instead, says state Local Government, Housing, Town and Country Planning Committee chairman Jagdeep Singh.
“I have suggested to Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraidah Kamaruddin to review the policy of PPR projects during a meeting with her recently. We have applicants who cannot even afford to buy low-cost or low medium-cost units.
“We want them (the hardcore poor) to have a sense of ownership,” Jagdeep told a press conference at the state Housing Department in Komtar today.
Also present was a group of 20-odd applicants, some of whom have been waiting for over 10 years for PPR units.
Others present were Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Daniel Gooi, Komtar assemblyman Teh Lai Heng, state Housing Department senior principal assistant secretary Ainul Fadhilah Samsudi, principal assistant secretary Fakhurrazi Ibnu Omar, assistant secretary Mohd Fauzi Mohd Yusoff and assistant secretary Nadzifah Abd Rahim.
Jagdeep said the Penang government planned to incorporate the ‘Rent-To-Own’ scheme into more low-cost housing projects.
He added that two low-cost projects – one in Balik Pulau and another in Kampung Permatang Tok Subuh, Bukit Minyak, have about 800 ‘Rent-To-Own’ units.
“Half of the 1,153 low-cost units of the Balik Pulau project are for ‘Rent-To-Own’,” he said.
A four-acre site in Jelutong has been earmarked for a PPR project to help the state ease its housing problems. The state is now in the process of addressing some squatters’ issue.
On the eviction of 22 PPR Taman Manggis tenants last week, Jagdeep said they have been given a six-day reprieve for them to appeal to the state Housing Department by tomorrow.
He dismissed allegations of mistreatment of tenants as there were police personnel and Penang Island City Council (MBPP) officers present.
He said, generally, tenants are disqualified for defaulting payment on rental or/and maintenance charges, renting out to others, or when their income increases and exceeds RM1,500 per month, or when they are found to have married foreigners and found to own property.
There are cases, he said, that the tenants pay only rental of RM124 per month but rent out their units for RM400 to RM500.
“Regular audit on the eligibility of tenants in public housing schemes will be carried out not only in Taman Manggis but also in other places.
“While we have the least PPR units in the whole of Malaysia, our waiting list for such rental units continues to grow. I will be failing my responsibility to those on the waiting list if the tenants who become ineligible are not evicted.”
He said the waiting list currently stands at 1,173 units throughout Penang, of which 734 come from the Northeast District where Taman Manggis is located. For Taman Manggis itself, there are 494 applicants on the waiting list.
“Since 2016, the committee which I chaired has sat 10 times and deliberated on 839 cases. From these cases, 246 had been decided for action to be taken against.
“We’ve assisted most of them by giving them various types of instalment packages. Clearly, action to evict will be the last resort.”
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Ahmad Adil Muhamad