Tenants affected by the recent repeal of the Rent Control Act in Penang are disappointed with the state Housing and Local Government Department for what they termed as "misleading" information pertaining to the ownership of a housing project for the poor.

Ong Boon Keong, a represenative of a citizen's initiative group, Save Ourselves (SOS), claimed that the department was trying to conceal its own "misallocation" of houses under the River Road Housing Project for the Poor.

Ong said many owners of the housing project should not be eligible for the houses under the project as they could afford news cars.

"(Even though) they occupy only 10 percent of the units, the same number of poor people have been deprived of their housing rights and opportunities.

"As a state government who trumpets the 'caring society' slogan, it should settle this scandal once and for all," Ong said in a press statement to malaysiakini .

"Every day, anyone who passes by the River Road Housing for the Poor would be puzzled by the new cars parked there.

"What more proof do we need of the unfairness and misallocation of housing under the department?" he asked.

For 5-children families

The River Road Housing Project for the Poor under the state government has allocated all the 200 units to those affected by the repeal of the Rent Control Act early this year.

These units, reserved for the urban poor and not just those affected by the rent repeal, are for families with a minimum of five children and an income of less than RM1,500 per month.

However, the housing project is not meant to re-house those who have been displaced by the controversial repeal of the Rent Control Act.

Since the repeal, the state government led by Chief Minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon has been fiercely criticised for favouring landlords instead of tenants.

Ong said that a SOS survey conducted in May last year revealed that out of the 52 cars found outside the housing project, over half of them are less than 10 years old, while 37 are still under hire-purchase.

"We found that the installment paid by the car owners reflected incomes beyond the official limit for those who applied for the housing units," he said.

"These people do not deserve to continue occupying the units at the expense of those who are genuinely poor," he stressed.

12 own new cars

Following a memo sent by SOS, the department checked with the Road Transport Department and discovered that only 12 persons staying there are the car owners.

In addition, Ong said, the housing department claimed that all the cars found are over 10 years old and this is no cause for the department to withdraw the units from the owners.

In an immediate response, Penang state executive councillor Dr Toh Kin Woon defended the department, echoing its finding that not all cars listed by SOS are owned by those who live in the units.

Toh said according to the report submitted by the department after checking with the RTD, the cars parked outside the housing project may belong to those who are "staying overnight at a relative or friend's place".

"The cars may also belong to people who work as drivers, it may be someone else's car," added Toh, who sits on the Rent Control Tenants Task Force committee, of which Ong is also a member.

Toh said the issue had been raised in the state executive meetings while he himself has met personally with Ong regarding the matter, adding that the state will take the necessary action to settle the problem.

Unwilling to share

In a related development, the housing department said that several tenants of previously rent-controlled premises have rejected the offer to share the units.

State Housing and Local Government Department director Tan Lee Lee recently said in The Star that these families were unwilling to share the units with other smaller households.

"The River Road Housing Scheme selection committee, headed by state secretary Khalid Ramli, has actually allocated all the 200 units to eligible poor tenants earlier this year.

"But several families on a unit-sharing basis have rejected the offer and thus, we now have 33 rooms available," she said.

Tan said the applicants were not new as their names had been submitted to the committee by their elected representatives several months ago.