According to a draft plan by the municipal construction department, Saigon will allocate 10,000 social housing apartments to residents who will be relocated under planned urban development efforts from now until 2020.
Phan Truong Son, a department official, elaborated on which type of household is covered by the social housing plan: displaced families that can't afford an apartment or are not eligible for compensation for demolished homes. Most residents living along local canals are likely to benefit from the scheme.
Although several apartment projects reserved for relocated families have been established in Saigon, but most of them are empty or unfinished, according to Son. Currently, there are 4,719 apartments that are earmarked for relocated families, but city authorities are building 10,642 more in the future.
Tuoi Tre visited a house along Doi Canal in District 8, where thousands of families are living in temporary houses and do not have full legal papers.
Nguyen Minh Tri, 39, lives in a crowded 23-square-meter house with seven family members. His mother told the news source that the family moved here before 1975, and has lived in temporary housing ever since.
The house faces a road, while the rear overlooks the canal over which the bathroom's hole in the floor empties. Human waste is deposited directly into the waterway. The structure is anchored to the shore by boards.
In an interview with Tuoi Tre, Tri said he would be happy to receive a new apartment, as authorities intend to move thousands of families along this canal.
[Photo via Tuoi Tre]
