With support from Yayasan Hasanah, Pepper Labs’ Dapur Digital – a cloud kitchen initiative – has nurtured a supportive community of home-based F&B business operators, besides upscaling their micro-businesses and boosting their income.
THE Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) social housing concept evolved from the public housing idea introduced in the 1970s by the government to solve the issue of squatters resulting from increased rural-urban migration.
However, through the years, PPRs are seen as poor housing with unsuitable living conditions.
To create a liveable PPR community and improve overall wellbeing, sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional is leading concerted actions with its related affiliates Khazanah Research Institute (KRI), Yayasan Hasanah and Think City to address gaps prevalent within social housing in Malaysia through policy recommendations, community empowerment and placemaking solutions.
“Our objective at Khazanah is the continuous creation of societal value for the nation, which plays a key role in our Advancing Malaysia strategy as we forge ahead to deliver a sustainable future,” says Khazanah Nasional managing director Datuk Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir.
“To achieve this, social marginalisation must be addressed and among those requiring immediate attention are the PPR communities. Together with our affiliates, we are committed in delivering impactful initiatives for the benefit of Malaysians within these communities.
“We applaud the announcement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of an additional allocation of RM35mil for community empowerment programmes for public housing communities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. The allocation will benefit 50,000 residents through the Kita-Untuk-Kita (K2K) programme, spearheaded by Think City.”
Framework for social housing
KRI conducted a survey from 2016 to 2017 for its report Decent Shelter For The Urban Poor: A Study of Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR), with the participation of 3,878 households from five PPRs in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
The study found that whilst PPR has successfully provided shelter for the urban poor, these complexes are fast becoming urban slums.
Furthermore, a significant proportion of households, not just the poor, will require social housing if the general affordability of housing is left unattended.
The study sets a policy framework for social housing to become a management responsibility for governments, with improvement objectives that include proper filtering of households and maintenance of social housing units.
The report provides policy options to enable households to move from social renting to private renting and eventually achieve home ownership.
The full report published in March 2023 is available on www.krinstitute.org.
“Although the provision of PPR social housing is considered a solution to provide the poor with better living conditions compared to squatter settlements, this has created a new problem which is ‘outdated and poor quality housing for the poor’ especially in stratified buildings,” says KRI chairman Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop.
“Hence the policy recommendations include a focus on the quality of social housing, the role of government in maintaining adequate social housing schemes, and the impact of social housing provision on the private housing market.”
The report underlines action plans to be taken in addressing shortcomings affecting the PPR programme, which include a review of the social housing policy and addressing longstanding defects of the private market whereby homes have become severely unaffordable for a majority of Malaysians.
Community-based approach
In addressing the issue of poverty among PPR communities, Yayasan Hasanah’s community-based approach seeks to address multidimensional issues in low-income communities through the involvement of multiple organisations.
One such initiative is the collaboration between Yayasan Hasanah and seven social impact partners at PPR Lembah Subang in the Klang Valley that has resulted in increased income for 241 residents, training and mentoring for 381 individuals, nutritional and mental health support for 700 people, as well as the development of 17 community leaders.
“Core to Yayasan Hasanah’s community-based approach is the understanding that poverty is multifaceted and reflects more than a deficiency of income and resources,” says Yayasan Hasanah trustee and managing director Datuk Shahira Ahmed Bazari.
“It encompasses economic, social, cultural, deprivations and is inherently interwoven with poor understanding of fundamental human rights.
“Sustained efforts towards community development recognise that people experience poverty differently in in their daily lives, and hence, we believe to truly empower communities and enhance their wellbeing through multidimensional interventions directed towards individuals, households and the community as a whole.”
Yayasan Hasanah, through its core partner Women of Will’s (WoW), works with community leaders to identify needs, and collaborates with other partners to address them. One such partner is Me.reka, a social enterprise which provides digital skills training and employment for youths.
In another collaborative effort, Khazanah, Yayasan Hasanah and Think City have initiated a procurement programme of products produced by selected PPR communities – enabling these communities to earn additional income for Aidilfitri. The products will be distributed to the stakeholders and communities related to the three entities.
The initiatives by Khazanah and its affiliates are set to provide further momentum and support for the government’s efforts to improve the lives of the PPR communities through relevant policies and jointly coordinated programmes that provide socioeconomic benefits, improved liveability, inclusivity, community empowerment and enhanced community wellbeing.
K2K initiative
K2K is a ground-up programme that seeks to improve the lives of public housing communities, whereby Think City leverages on the collective expertise of its networks and partnerships to design and implement comprehensive programmes in solving social, economic and physical challenges.
Think City, an impact organisation established in 2009 to create more sustainable and equitable places for the benefit of all, has expanded the K2K programme across the Klang Valley, with the aim to enhance support to public housing communities and building management in four critical areas – community empowerment, public housing co-management, improved income generation, and policy reform.
Over the last decade, Think City has worked on improving Malaysian cities across diverse areas for all urban residents, especially the most vulnerable members of society.
Think City has conducted research and intervention programmes surrounding public housing and residential communities in Malaysia, beginning with community housing in George Town, and has since then evolved to expand to public housing projects in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
“In line with Malaysia Madani, K2K promotes collective action for a more inclusive, resilient and prosperous public housing communities, and a shared responsibility to achieve more equitable outcomes responsive to the needs and aspirations of the communities,” says Think City managing director Hamdan Abdul Majeed.
“As we work to implement these social resilience initiatives, we hope to shape a democratic and sustainable path based on trust with the public housing communities, our networks, and partnerships to jointly implement comprehensive programmes where it matters most.”
The initiative will be strengthened by an intergovernmental committee that will involve various public and private stakeholders to accelerate coordination and implementation, to benefit public housing communities.
