Make housing affordable

THE biggest need felt in all urban centres in the country is decent housing for workers.
Last month, Minister for Housing and Urban Development Justin Tkatchenko ordered the suspension of two National Housing Corporation (NHC) officers after the eviction of tenants in Lae.
While we applaud the minister’s action, perhaps he should go a step further and commit himself to looking at how to make affordable housing a reality.
For far too long, the State entity entrusted to provide this basic human need has not been able to perform its core function effectively.
Instead of working hard to help Papua New Guineans acquire or build homes, the NHC has been caught up in a long history of chronic mismanagement and financial trouble.
It has attempted many housing schemes which have basically failed and to this day, the corporation is still struggling financially.
Families who have been beneficiaries of such schemes or have been long-term tenants have been threatened or forcefully evicted because they have failed to keep their part of the purchase agreement.
This has been an all-too-common story for tenants of NHC properties throughout the country.
Most times, families have been subjected to the indignity of being forcefully evicted from one such property.
Such is likely to continue because there have been no transparent and honest transaction records of NHC properties over the years.
In some instances, there were more than one copies of titles to properties while in others, records of payments of term tenants, especially long serving public servants, were difficult to trace and authenticate.
This often result in families being victimised by the landlord or people who have supposedly purchased properties and have titles to them.
There are serious reservations over the manner in which the NHC treats Papua New Guineans who have for years lived and raised families in those homes.
To drag someone out of the privacy and security of his home is tantamount to violating one’s dignity.
Housing is a critical human need in all PNG urban centres and despite the rapidly expanding economy, chances of most urban families acquiring homes of their own remain slim.
The favourable economic conditions are exacerbating the law of supply and demand.
The limited volume of real estate is beyond the reach of most Papua New Guineans.
There is no way someone earning K500 a fortnight can afford rental accommodation besides meeting his other basic needs.
The situation will continue unless the State steps in to put a ceiling over the price of real estate.
The NHC is the one state agency that Papua New Guineans turn to for solutions to the serious shortage of housing and land in urban centres.
When the NHC sells off low-cost properties to well-to-do citizens or non-citizens, they in turn develop real estate that would in the end be out of reach of the average wage earner.
It means more workers in urban centres would still remain homeless or would be pushed to settlement dwellings while the rich acquire more wealth.
It is going to be a lot of work for the minister and the managing director to turn around the NHC into a profitable entity which can respond to the housing needs of Papua New Guineans.