Poor urban renters a ‘forgotten demographic’
When Hay Bunny left her home in Prey Veng province some five years ago to find a job in Phnom Penh, she was not expecting to wind up living in a small tin shack hemmed in by dozens of nearly identical dwellings on a single plot of land. … Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), a local urban housing NGO, says renters like Ms. Bunny —mostly migrants from the provinces working low-income jobs and renting small homes in cramped, squalid settlements—live a precarious existence in the face of tenure insecurity, poor health conditions and threats to their safety. STT on Thursday released a report with the results of a survey of 124 such households occupying properties averaging 13 square meters in size, some sleeping as many as 10 people. … STT identified the high prices of water and electricity as a further challenge for renters and called for the government to regulate provision of utilities to the settlements. … In its report, STT recommends that the government adopt public housing solutions for impoverished renters and establish construction standards for new rental dwellings. …
Holly Robertson and Ouch Sony
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/poor-urban-renters-a-forgotten-demographic-72322/
