GEORGE TOWN, March 5 — Odd job worker Mohd Jamal Madar has been waiting for a people’s housing project (PPR) unit for almost 20 years and he is losing hope.
The 68-year-old had applied for a PPR unit back in 2000 but till today, he is yet to get an offer for a unit.
“I applied when my wife was alive, now, my wife has already passed away and two of our children had also passed away, yet I am still waiting for a place to live in,” he said.
Mohd Jamal said he now lives in a rented flat in Paya Terubong with his son who is suffering from a heart condition.
He claimed he was called in for interviews with the housing department but after each interview, he was never offered a unit.
“I am losing hope, my wife is gone, my two children are gone, maybe I have to wait till I die before I can get a unit,” he said when met at the state housing department office in Komtar this morning.
The state housing department called in over 22 applicants on the PPR waiting list today to offer them several options including rent-to-own schemes by the state government.
Penang state exco Jagdeep Singh Deo said these are the people the state had to help which was why the administration had been strict in evicting ineligible tenants from PPR units.
“We need to answer to these people who have been waiting for so long, this is why those who are ineligible must vacate the PPR units,” he said in a press conference today.
Another applicant on the waiting list, Chew Kim Choo, 76, said she had applied for a PPR unit since 2003.
She and her two sons, who are odd job workers, have been renting kampung houses along Perak Road all these years.
“We have been moving all around a lot, every time there is a development, the kampung has to be vacated and yet again we have to move so we have moved from one end of Perak Road to another end,” she said.
She said now, they are living in a kampung house and again, the village is slotted for development so they may have to move out again.
She said over the past 10 to 20 years, they were like nomads moving from place to place.
“We only want a proper place to live in permanently that we can afford,” she said.
She added that she is not working and her sons earned very little to afford higher rental places.
Chew and Mohd Jamal were two out of 1,137 applicants on a long waiting list for PPR housing in Penang.
The state government recently evicted 22 ineligible tenants from Taman Manggis, one of the few PPR units in the state.
Jagdeep said the state had to evict them as they were already ineligible for the units such as earning higher than the minimum of RM1,500 per household per month, owning homes and subletting out the units to others.
The 22 ineligible tenants will be evicted tomorrow.
