A cramped rented room of more than ten m2 and the dream of settling down of workers in Ho Chi Minh City

Amidst the cramped ten-million-square-meter rented rooms and the pressure of expensive costs in Ho Chi Minh City, many workers are suffering from a sense of emptiness in both space and finance.

Struggling to live under a cramped rented room

For many worker families in Ho Chi Minh City, the dream of settling down in the city is still too far away. In Tay Thanh ward, for more than 10 years, a rented room of about 12 m2 with a mezzanine has been a shelter from rain and sun for 3 people of Ms. Tran Thi Thu Thao's family (35 years old, from Quang Tri).

Every evening, leading her motorbike into the house and spreading a mattress to sleep, the room was immediately "locked" in the walkway, and the kitchen space had to shrink significantly. With a total income of more than 15 million VND/month, after deducting tuition fees for her children and minimum living expenses, the meager accumulated money made Ms. Thao not dare to think about owning a private house.

In the same boarding area, Ms. Doan Thi Tuyen Chi (30 years old) bears the cost of renting a house and electricity and water up to 3 million VND/month. The room is so cramped that when she first moved in, there was no sink. Her 3-year-old child only knows how to ride a small bicycle in the alley in front of the row of boarding houses. If she wants to move to further suburban areas like Vinh Loc to have cheaper rents, she lacks supermarkets and her child's learning conditions are not as good as the current area, and renting a larger house in this area costs beyond her economic capacity.

Proposal to turn 953 vacant resettlement apartments into housing for workers

Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Vo Khac Thai - Standing Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation said that a survey by the Ho Chi Minh City Trade Union organization recorded more than 33,500 cases of workers with urgent housing needs. Among them, 3,881 households need to rent and more than 30,300 households need to rent or buy social housing.

Currently, most workers have to rent rooms in spontaneous residential areas in cramped conditions, lack of infrastructure and potential fire and explosion risks. With a common income of 7–10 million VND/month, workers face a lot of pressure when balancing house rental costs, living expenses and raising children to study. Therefore, the housing problem is not only in the selling price but also the key is the ability to pay monthly, in which the demand for renting houses at reasonable prices is very large.

Faced with the above situation, the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation has proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to convert 953 resettlement apartments that have been vacant for many years in Vinh Loc B Residential Area into cheap rental housing for workers.

Vinh Loc B resettlement area was put into use in 2010 with a total investment of more than 1,000 billion VND to arrange accommodation for households being cleared under the urban upgrade project. However, after more than 15 years, many houses still have no residents, some items are degraded, grass grows all over the walkways due to lack of regular maintenance.

The Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation believes that converting these apartments into rental houses can immediately take advantage of existing housing funds, reduce asset waste and supplement supply for workers instead of having to wait for new projects to be built.

In parallel with the proposal in Vinh Loc B, the Ho Chi Minh City Labor Federation has signed a cooperation agreement with 9 businesses to develop about 128,000 houses for workers from now to 2030. The Trade Union organization will closely monitor the progress, act as a bridge connecting businesses and coordinate to remove arising obstacles to realize commitments and bring housing to workers.

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