Poor urban renters a ‘forgotten demographic’

14 November 2014
The Cambodia Daily
Development policy and administration / Government / Infrastructure / Ministries and other national bodies / Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction / Phnom Penh / Provincial and local governments / Urban administration and development
Ee Sarom / Ministry of Land Management / National Housing Policy / Sahmakum Teang Tnaut

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/