HIGH LEAVING: PPR Desa Rejang flats where most occupants choose to stay for free

KUALA LUMPUR: A majority of residents living in the People’s Housing Project (PPR) homes in Kuala Lumpur, who fail to pay rental, are not poor. Instead, they are just indifferent and plain stubborn.

This was revealed to The Malay Mail by City Hall’s housing management director, Sukiman Surahman.

Sukiman said out of the 52,914 families renting PPR units, 41,029 of them were defaulters and out of the total number of defaulters, only 20 per cent can be categorised as hardcore poor.

“The other 80 per cent can afford the rent, but instead they are just plain stubborn. They know there is a monthly rent to be paid but they just can’t be bothered,” he said.

Sukiman got a shock when he recently visited PPR Kampung Muhibbah in Puchong and found many residents lived in comfort and yet failed to pay their monthly dues to City Hall.

“There’s nothing free in this world. The residents have to change their mindsets and start paying rent accordingly. If they face problems in paying their rent, they could always talk to us and we could work out an appropriate payment plan for them.”

City Hall, he said, identified 2000 PPR units that were in the hands of hardcore poor as of April this year.

“The people who live in these units are usually those unemployed, have children with little furniture and with no financial assistance from any source.”

“We have also identified other families in the poor category. These families receive some form of financial help,” he said.

“As of April, we identified 1,600 PPR units with people who receive financial assistance from Baitumal as well as 600 unit occupants who receive financial assistance from the Social Welfare Department,” he said.

Sukiman said when encountering such families, City Hall usually adviced them on their next course of action.

“When I was doing my rounds at PPR Taman Mulia, I encountered a family of ten living in a unit. Both parents were jobless. Their eight young non-school going children stayed at home.

“This family owes City Hall RM8,000 in rent. We referred them to several bodies. Yayasan Wilayah sponsors their children to school, the Social Welfare Department gave them some form of monetary aid to carry on with their lives. Baitumal helped them with their rent,” he said.

Sukiman said plans are afoot to group the 2000 units of hardcore poor families for transfer into one separate PPR area.

“This will make it easier for the government to monitor them. Probably, we can get companies to help them as part of their corporate social responsibility programme,” he said.

48′ flat screen TVs … but they don’t pay rent

CITY HALL’s housing management director, Sukiman Surahman was taken aback when he visited PPR Kampung Muhibbah in Puchong.

“I visited a family who owes City Hall about RM17,000 in rent after not paying for more than 10 years.

I felt something amiss upon entering the hall of the house which contained a 48-inch flat screen television.

“Then upon entering a room, I saw another 36-inch flat screen television set. The house also had a three-door refrigerator.

The surprises did not end there.

“I went to another unit which owes us RM11,000 in rent. Can you imagine that?”

Sukiman said when he asked the families why they failed to pay their dues for so long, they told him they are not aware of such payments.

“They told me when they first moved into their respective units, they were told by some politicians in the area that they were there for free.

On explaining to them that there was no such thing as ‘free’ the families have agreed to pay their dues.

source: http://mmail.com.my/content/77703-ppr-rent-issue-freeloaders