Yangon govt to offer low-cost housing to ‘real’ squatters
The Yangon Region government is in the process of arranging low-cost housing for “real squatters” in the commercial capital, Yangon’s security and border affairs minister told the regional legislature on November 16. He was responding to a question from lawmaker U Kyaw Zeya (NLD; Dagon 2), who asked why MPs had yet to be provided with follow-up information six months after the regional government said it would begin to tackle the issue of Yangon’s unofficial tenants, estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands. In May, the government said it would first carry out a census-like data collection effort to ascertain the squatter population, including attempting to determine who among these unofficial residents were truly without alternative – and legal – housing options. Speaking on November 16, Colonel Tin Aung Tun, the regional minister for security and border affairs, said the government would provide support to “real squatters” while taking action against “professional squatters”, described as people who do not have a genuine claim to landlessness and exploit the legitimate claims of others.
