One Million Houses Program Does Not Reach Target, Vice President: Because Of COVID-19

Wapres Ma'ruf Amin (Photo: Instagtram Ma'ruf Amin)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said the one million houses program by 2020 could not reach the target due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is as is the data until November 16, 2020.

"The realization of the one million houses program as of 16 November 2020 has only reached 667,554 housing units consisting of 75 percent of houses for low-income people (MBR) and 25 percent of houses for non-MBR," said Ma'ruf Amin when opening the National Working Meeting (Rakernas). ) REI 2020, reported by Antara, Thursday, December 3.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, continued the Vice President, REI also could not achieve the target of building 239,109 housing units for MBR.

The one million homes program was inaugurated in 2015 by President Joko Widodo. After five years running, the program has succeeded in building as many as 5.4 million units, 70 percent of which is intended for MBR.

"The government believes that building houses for the people will not only have a positive impact on the economy, but will also raise the quality of life of the people, especially those involved in the property industry cluster," he explained.

The housing and property sector is an industrial cluster involving many types of businesses and industries, so that job creation in this sector is quite large, said the Vice President. With this housing development, the Government hopes to absorb a lot of workers through labor-intensive programs.

Regarding the high housing backlog, which reached 11.04 million units, the Vice President has encouraged the acceleration of housing construction, especially for low-income families.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2019, the number of families in Indonesia who own a house reaches 80.07 percent. While the rest live by renting a house, staying with relatives and being nomadic.

"Therefore, we need to support the development of the housing sector as a lever of inclusive economic growth and its benefits can be enjoyed by various groups of people. We all realize that the struggle to facilitate housing for the people is still long, ”he said.