The Government Establishes a Housing Assistance Scheme for Victims of the Sumatra Disaster

JAKARTA - Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian said the government had established a housing assistance scheme for disaster-affected residents in the Sumatra region.

Tito said the assistance scheme was discussed in a meeting with the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Investment and Industrialization, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of ATR/BPN, the National Police, the TNI, BNPB, and regional heads from the affected areas.

"Last night we also held a meeting in order to handle the problem of house damage, we know that the house has three classifications. Houses that are damaged are light, medium, and heavy. Last night we met for about three hours," said Tito in a press conference on Post-disaster Recovery and Strategic Plans before the End of the Year at Halim Perdanakusuma Air Base, Jakarta, Monday, December 29, reported by ANTARA.

Tito said the government had determined that houses with minor and moderate damage would receive cost support, amounting to Rp15 million and Rp30 million respectively, which would be paid by BNPB.

Meanwhile, severely damaged houses are handled through the provision of temporary housing, with the option for residents to occupy the prepared housing or stay temporarily in family homes, while waiting for the construction of permanent housing.

The residential development is still planned through three schemes, namely the construction of 15,000 units by Danantara, construction through the State Budget which is carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Settlements with a larger number, and a mutual aid scheme from various parties.

"This means that the parties who want to help, including one who has helped as much as 2,600 and has ground breakingminggu lalu," said Tito.

Apart from the house repair assistance, the government has also prepared other supporting assistance.

Tito said the Ministry of Social Affairs provided furniture assistance worth Rp3 million, economic recovery assistance of Rp5 million, and food assistance worth Rp15,000 for three months.

He emphasized that the acceleration of the distribution of this assistance currently depends heavily on the completeness of the data compiled by the local government.

"The question is data. The data that is expected by name by address from the light, medium, and heavy damage. This data yesterday was an agreement from the local government that made it," said Tito.

Of the 18 affected districts/cities in Aceh, 18 in North Sumatra, and 16 in West Sumatra, most areas in West Sumatra have sent data, followed by some areas in North Sumatra, while data transmission from Aceh is still limited.

For this reason, Tito said his party supports the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) to participate in collecting and completing data per name and per address.

"We help, support BNPB to move, then also from BPS, the Central Statistics Agency, also moves to collect data by name by address," he said.

Tito said that the data will later be validated by the local police, the prosecutor's office, and the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) so that the process of distributing assistance can be carried out quickly and accountable.

"Now we hope that as soon as possible this data, of course the data does not have to wait for it to be complete, it is wavy, because there will be others who may not have been recorded. The important thing is to have data first, the baseline, and immediately handed over to BNPB and the Ministry of Social Affairs, BNPB will immediately pay," he said.

Tito explained, based on provisional data that is being reconciled, 68,855 houses were damaged slightly, 37,520 houses were damaged moderately, and 56,108 houses were severely damaged in the three provinces, with a total of 213,432 affected houses.

"We hope that if we get the data that is slightly damaged, medium damage, we count about 106,370 houses, this is about two thirds of the number of damaged houses. This means that if this is given immediately, then they will return, while they are helped to be cleaned, filled in by the Minister of Social Affairs, the money for the food by the Minister of Social Affairs, it can reduce refugees by about 60 percent," he said.

"So we are thinking of living 40 percent, developing hunting, temporary housing, and permanent housing," he concluded.