Housing a perennial problem

 HOUSING for Pa­pua New Guineans, especially those in the low to middle income bracket, has seldom been an issue seriously looked at by the government. 

The dilapidated state of many government department houses tells you all you need to know about the lack of consideration given them by their own departments and ultimately law makers and legislators on whom many of these decisions rest.  

It is a problem many families face and in spite of the building boom in some of major centres, it is fair to say that most citizens live somewhere between the mar­gin that separates settlements from low cost basic housing. 

On the other end of the spectrum you have the foreign workforce and affluent Papua New Guineans and the middle class (see highly educated) occupying the best homes money can buy, while around them in every nook and cranny sprout settlements virtually unhindered, populated by people who have next to no means for even the basics for a place of abode – services and amenities like clean running water, electricity, a proper sewerage system and garbage disposal –  are not freely available. 

An increasing trend one finds is a good number of these settlement dwellers are formally employed and some even have tertiary le­vel education and work over a wide cross section of the community in jobs in the private sector from banking to construction and in the public service from the police force to health and teaching. 

Unfortunately, the acute lack of affordable homes and reasonable rental rates has driven many to the settlements or crammed them into suburban homes with as many as two or three families to a residence. 

That is the reality for many Papua New Guineans and the cry has been long and hoarse over the years but now with the expansion of the middle class, the demand for better quality homes is getting louder and louder from all corners. 

The government of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has taken some steps to alleviate the problem at least for one batch of deprived citizens. 

The Gordon Police Barracks, recently described by Police Minister Robert Atiyafa as an “eye sore” will have all its senior officers (those who have been on the force a decade or more) moved to a new housing project at Bomana. 

This represents the first, and hopefully not the last, major foray into addressing poor housing endured by public servants. At a cost of K49 million, 150 homes will be constructed. The announcement was made by O’Neill over the weekend at Bomana at the launch of the project. O’Neill said after completion, another 150 homes would be built.

This is great news for long suffering public servants and their families who have had to put up with living in deteriorating houses and many times have had to spend their own money to maintain these properties that are not theirs. 

We are not sure what kind of homes K49m can buy (each home will have an estimated value of K326,000) but apparently these homes will be three bedroom lodgings that will be completed in 10 months. At that rate they will be ready well before the Pacific Games in July, 2015, and dare we say even before some of the sports venues are completed. 

But the government cannot stop here; it must do the same for every other department. 

One department cannot be singled out for special treatment no matter how dire its need. There are other public servants who work just as hard and who face the same daily problems in not having decent housing.  

But serving the public service is just one side of the coin, the government needs to regulate stringently the property market to control the rates charged by landlords and property owners.  The  industry has the luxury of minimal regulation to the obvious disadvantage of many. If legislators can tighten the way the property rental markets are run and make employers bear some responsibility for housing their employees then we should see more people living in decent homes. 

As for settlements, this is another area the state needs to step in to make home ownership accessible for Papua New Guineans from all walks of life.  Anyone who works to earn a living deserves to have a place to call home.