The public housing problem

THE People’s Housing Project (PPR) is a social housing programme first conceived to provide temporary housing for the urban poor. It was meant to eradicate slums and give low-income households better shelter as they worked their way towards income growth – ideally “graduating” from public housing one day.

However, it seems that what was meant to be a short-term solution has became a permanent condition. In 2016, the median duration of a tenant’s stay was nine years, and 80% of families who move in will end up living there for the rest of their lives. Long-term residence has led to another problem: in 2018, a whopping 80,000 families were on the waitlist for a PPR unit.