Govt must resolve housing woes

Letters, Normal
Source:

The National, Friday, May 6, 2011

WE are told that by the end of the year, PNG will have its first ever casino and five-star hotel.
This new hotel is expected to offer affordable rates.
This is good news for many business travellers and tourists who are normally here for short visits.
However, one wonders how much the government is doing to curb the rising cost of rentals of accommodation in the urban areas.
For “long-term” residents, one more hotel means nothing to them when they are being forced to dig deep to keep a roof over their heads.
Others cannot even afford accommodation within city limits and are pushed into settlements and many of these people are public servants. 
Investing in the hotel-casino in order to create jobs for our people is one thing but, at the end of the day, the workers also need to find accommodation, thus adding more competition to limited affordable housing.
The national government needs to se­riously look into alleviating this problem or else settlements will continue to mushroom not only in the nation’s capital but in all urban areas, if it is not already happening.

 

pngn
Port Moresby