A civil society organisation for the poor rejected the junta’s subsidised state housing project for the poor, saying that the project is not compatible with the urban poor’s livelihoods.
The Four Regions Slum Network (FRSN), a civil society organisation which is a political voice of the marginalised community in Thailand, on Tuesday submitted a letter titled ‘Not bringing slum dwellers to the flat’ to Gen Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and prime minister, urging the junta to rethink its housing project for the poor communities.
The project to build subsidised apartments for the urban poor communities is coined as one of the solutions to provide housing for people who are living in slums adjacent to railway lines.
This is due to the junta’s plan to reclaim the railway slum areas to pave the way for the new railway infrastructure projects to upgrade railway connections throughout the country.
Last Friday, Gen Prayuth said on the junta’s Friday TV program that the urban poor should move from slum areas to allow the government to utilise the areas for other public utilities and to uplift their own standards of livings.
“We have to cooperate in whatever [we] will do, but don’t come and stay in slums,” said Gen Prayuth. “We can utilise the [slum] areas for building public parks and other public utilities, [such as ] sport stadiums,” he added.
Jamnong Nupan, the leader of the FRSN, however, said in the letter that the state subsidised apartment project for poor communities similar to the ones built by the Nation Housing Authority in the last 30 years will fail to tackle the problems of the urban poors.
“The ways of lives of urban slum dwellers are mostly in informal labor sector, which are required to use the residential areas for earning living, such as for selling goods, storing reused goods, or tailoring. Therefore, living in flats is not compatible with their livelihoods,” said the FRSN statement.
The group urged that the government should continue with the projects to develop secured housing for the urban poor on the slum areas itself or adjacent areas, which were implemented in the three previous civil administrations under the cooperation of Community Organisations Development Institute and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
The FRSN concluded in the letter “the FRSN would like to firmly state that [Gen Prayuth] should continue with the secure housing projects, which emphasise on the participation of community members in developing the same residential areas or adjacent areas by leasing out the public lands.”