The Malaysian Insight

FAMILIES who continue to occupy low-cost public housing units (PPR) despite not being eligible for them will be evicted as the highly-subsidised units are meant for the hardcore poor, said state housing exco Jagdeep Singh Deo.

He said some people have beenon the waiting list for housing for more than 10 years, adding that authorities will continue to carry out regular audits on the eligibility of tenants in the PPR rental schemes to be fair to eligible applicants.

Penang has the fewest number of PPR units in the country at only 999 units, according to a parliamentary answer by the federal government in May 2016.

Jagdeep said eviction would always be the last resort, but stressed that action must be taken if the tenants were found to be no longer eligible to occupy the units, or continued to fail to pay the low rent.

“This is necessary, as I have said before, there is very short supply for such rental units, whilst the waiting list for such rental units continue to grow, whereby the waiting list currently stands at 1,137 for units throughout Penang,” he said in a statement today.

Jagdeep’s statement follows the eviction notice handed to 22 tenants at the Taman Manggis PPR flat.

The families have until March 6 to vacate the units but Jagdeep said they were still allowed to appeal to the Housing Department before the deadline.

Taman Manggis is one of two PPR flats in the northeast district, where land is scarce but remains the most popular place to live for low-income earners.

The flat is strategically located in town, not far from the city centre. The other PPR flat in the district, which also has a high-occupancy rate, is the Jalan Sungai flats.

Jagdeep said the waiting list in the northeast district is 734, and 434 of them are seeking units in Taman Manggis.

He said 271 applicants for Taman Manggis PPR had been waiting for seven years, while 22 had been waiting for 10 to 11 years.

“We have to be firm to be fair to those who have been on the waiting list all this while,” he said.

Jagdeep said since 2016, the committee handling PPR cases chaired by him had taken action against 246 cases.

He said a majority of the affected tenants received help from the authorities through various types of instalment packages to avoid eviction.

“For those who are found to continuously have arrears despite our assistance, or who have been found not to be eligible for other reasons, action will be taken.”

PPR tenants typically lose their eligibility to stay at the units, where the monthly rental is RM100, when they fail to pay rent and accumulate arrears, when their income has exceeded the cap for eligible tenants, or when they are found to own property or are married to foreigners. – February 28, 2019.