Housing Aid Recipients To Seek Work in City [-So much for free housing!]

By Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
25 November 2009

Most of the families who received donations on the visit of former US president Jimmy Carter last week to be relocated outside Phnom Penh say they now have to return to the capital to find work.

The families, some of the city’s poorest, received housing help through Habitat for Humanity, but they will have to repay half of the funds provided, many of them told VOA Khmer.

The families have found it hard to make a living in their new location in Oudong, in Kandal province, outside the capital.

“None of the families can yet think of what to do,” said Huot Phally, who recently moved to the site, 40 kilometers from the city.

Huot Phally and her husband used to earn around $4 a day collecting trash for recycling around Phnom Penh, a job they no longer have.

“We just temporarily stay put, but we don’t know what businesses to do,” she said.

With jobs scarce at the new site, many families have been forced back to work in Phnom Penh, said Chea Chandy, a representative of the 21 families at the New Life community.

“Normally, jobs are really important for us when we move from one place to another,” he said recently, sitting by his new home. “But now, most families have returned the city to be laborers and so on.”

Each of the families will have to repay $15 a month for the next five years to share the cost of their new homes, and many expected to have land for farming or loans to start small businesses in order to make the monthly payment.

“We know that moving here will reduce their incomes, but they also know that,” said Bernadette Bolo-Duthy, Habitat’s country director. “They said: ‘We’ve already investigated and there are a few factories; we can sell, we can plant.’ That’s what they told us.”

The group will provide the families with microfinance loans, she said, “and we hope they will borrow, [which will] help them develop their businesses.”

Tonle Sap: Samaky villagers to be relocated … but they must take an oath not to come back

11 April 2008
By Ung Chansophea and Kang Kallyan
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

At the end of a lottery organized for the distribution of land plots, the beneficiaries were asked not to sell their land immediately.

In the morning of Friday 11 April, a lottery was held for the distribution of land plots promised to the 39 families from the Samaky village who were victims of the riverbank collapse along the Tonle Sap River. For this occasion, Man Chhoeun, the deputy-governor of the city of Phnom Penh, traveled there, and the event took place under a good ambience.

“We are satisfied with this aid which comes right on time, just when we lost everything,” said Sim Sorn who just received the No. 26 land plot. “I am satisfied to own a house now, complete with the land title,” said Sorn’s neighbor who was standing next to a blue tent shelter, located in a school where the families of the victims are currently relocated temporarily. Currently, none of the villagers have yet visited the land plots promised to be granted to them located in Tuol Sambo.

During the lottery, Kim Ratana, the deputy director of the Catholic NGO Caritas, took the opportunity to make some announcements in order to reassure the families about their future. To start with, Caritas promised to provide foods and clothes for the families for one month. Next, Caritas also promised to build one house for each family, as well as water wells. Finally, about 50 children will also receive education material. Later on, Caritas will provide loans to those who want to start their small businesses “because Caritas is aware that this new life in another village will have an impact on the villagers daily life,” Kim Ratana said. “The majority of the villagers work in construction,” said Ouch Tum, a fish seller.

At the conclusion of the lottery, Man Chhoeun warned the beneficiaries by telling them “not to sell their house (immediately) to return back to the same place they lived before.” To add weight to his warning, he asked the 39 families to take an oath at the end of the meeting.

Regarding the landslide, while some still continue to believe that it was from natural causes, others are convinced that it was caused by the nearby sand dredging operations made by private boats. “There were no such incident in the past, but since they started dredging sand, the number of collapses increases,” one villager said.

Phnom Penh: Relocation plan to be presented by the residents themselves

Monday, May 07, 2007
By Chheang Sokha
Cambodge Soir
Unofficial translation from French by Luc Sâr

Click here to read Cambodge Soir’s original article in French

The residents of “Group 78,” a place located next to the new National Assembly construction site, do not plan to remain idle. Tomorrow, they will present a relocation plan that a group of lawyers and architecture students help them set up.

Threatened with eviction since last year, residents of “Group 78,” located next to the new National Assembly construction site, have decided that they will not remain idle, while being eaten up by concerns. Representatives of the 146 families, with the help of lawyers and architecture students from the Norton University, took to task to set up by themselves a relocation plan on the same spot. They will reveal the plan tomorrow to reporters, city representatives and private companies during a press conference at the World Vision NGO office.

Pioneering spirit

“It is the first time that the residents themselves present an actual relocation plan on the same spot. This can serve as a model for other communities threatened with eviction,” said Sok Socheat, a CLEC (Community Legal Education Center) lawyer. The plan consists of building five 4-story buildings, with 36 apartments in each building. The “Group 78” residents would invest in three of the buildings, whereas the remaining two will be left to private companies which will rent or sell the apartments. The goal is to find a company willing to invest in the project costing about $2 million.

“Some residents of Sambok Chab, not far from here, who were relocated in the far suburb of Phnom Penh, came back to try to find a place to live here. They told us about the difficult living conditions they face in the suburb. We don’t want to end up like that,” Seung Deuk, a resident, said. “I earn a living selling drinks at Quai [Sisowath], I hope that we will be relocated here. If not, we must be fairly compensated.” According to an estimate by a real estate company, the cost of 1 square meter of land in this sector is about $550.

For Say Sophal, one of the representatives of the three communities of “Group 78,” the relocation on the same spot is vital. “In 2006, the city proposed us $600 per family and a plot of 5-by-12-meter land at about 20 kilometers from Phnom Penh. Will the city move us out? What will we do to survive there?” he said.

The city does not support the plan

All the families agree to put to an end the anarchic wood constructions, and to relocate in same size apartments. “It’s a way to avoid an eviction, for the municipality, it does not cost them anything, and for the investor, it’s a good deal,” Sok Chea, the CLEC lawyer, explained. According to her, the residents of “Group 78” are living there legally, most of them had settled since the 80s. Furthermore, no private companies have yet bought the land.

The city denied this fact. “These families are dreaming. The land belong to the State and to a company,” Pa Socheatvong, the city deputy governor, said. However, he refused to name this company, but that it could be the Soun Srun company, the same company which bought (and evicted) the Sambok Chab zone.

Pa Socheatvong does not support this plan because it originates from illegal residents. “The authorities do not want to inflict pain on people. The political parties want to earn votes, and these [residents] are voters. If the authorities evict them, it is not because they want to do it, but because they have to apply the law. If these residents continue [their action], the authorities will be pushed to take swift action. And, if they don’t agree with the city, the case will be resolved in court,” he warned.