Surabaya Legislative Council Proposes Housing Agency

Surabaya, E Java (Antara) - Commission B of the Surabaya City Legislative Council (DPRD) has proposed the creation of a housing agency to address housing problems in the city. The city government had not optimally benefited from budget allocations from the central government to build flats, chief of the commission B of the city legislative council Mazlan Mansur said here on Monday. \"We assume that the absence of housing agency has led to the low absorption of the budget allocations,\" he said. He said several districts and municipalities in Jakarta and West Java had had housing agencies. The only agency dealing with housing problems in Surabaya was the building and land management board (DPBT). However, it only focused on land issues, he said. Secretary of the Surabaya city government Hendro Gunawan said there was no urgency in the creation of housing agency, arguing that the city housing problems were currently handled by a number of working units. He said the problem related to slums could not be handled by one working unit. Many agencies were responsible for improving the city\'s residential areas, including the public works office which is tasked with maintaining roads and waterworks and the urban development and spatial layout office which is responsible for handling the city\'s slums, he said. (*) Reported by Abdul Hakim