Rusunawa as a preferable housing for low income people and informal settlements :: A case study of rusunawa project in Bata City Indonesia

SAHALO, M. Aidil, Ir. Suryanto, MSP

2009 | Tesis | S2 MPKD

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Batam is one of fastest growing cities of Indonesia, from just an island located in the Malacca strait to an urban agglomeration with a population of approximately one million. One fifth of the population or approximately 250.000 inhabitants consist of industrial labourers. Since not all companies provide dormitories for their employees and insufficient affordable housing is available, most of people had to resort to accommodate themselves in informal settlements, or renting rooms in squatter settlements or in formal settlements far from their work places. These squatter settlements lack basic infrastructures. By the initiative from Ministry of Public Works and Ministry of Public Housing, Batam is given a chance to have Rusunawa Project in some industrial areas as a response to the imbalance of supply and demand especially for low income earners (MBR). Rusunawa Project is a rental housing programme of 4 (four) stories buildings where the price is subsidized by both central government and municipality. The targeted people are low level labour in all industrial existing areas. Batam was awarded as a good example of urban city that can facilitate Rusunawa Project compare with other urban cities that also have Rusunawa projects like Yogyakarta, Semarang, Medan, etc. This exploratory survey research was intended to reveal the benefits of Rusunawa Project by tenants’ perceptions. Some detail aspects were questioned to 50 representatives of tenants that consist of two main aspects; affordability and satisfaction. Another question asked to Municipality in term of sustainability of this project. Some officers were questioned on this aspect; public works agency, city management agency and regional planning and development board. Some related document from central government such as Law and other form of Regulation were also taken as data besides journal, review and other textual documentation. There were also some questions addressed to real estate Indonesia (REI) to find out the degree of involvement on this project. The study found that Rusunawa Project in general is a better choice of housing for low level industrial labour with minimum wage. Location factor and a lower rent price are the two main reasons for them to prefer Rusunawa apartments than living in squatter settlement without any facilities or even in formal rental houses but in a distance to reach their work place. Those two aspects are the main portion of their wage; housing and transportation cost, both costs should be less than half of total. Briefly, this Rusunawa Project is a successful housing supply effort to reduce the gap between supply and demand. Some recommendations that could be mentioned here are; still Municipality must accelerate to build more Rusunawa apartments with full support from Central Government, conduct a regular survey on tenants ability to select the most appropriate targeted people who deserve more to stay in Rusunawa, paying attention more seriously on maintenance, and should be in consideration that UPT Rusunawa will be strengthened in two aspects; bureaucracy and professionalism in order to serve better.

Kata Kunci : Rusunawa,Batam,Low,income,people,Housing,Municipality, Rusunawa, Batam, low-income-people, housing, municipality