Many shortcomings in building workers' housing

However, the city's housing projects only meet nearly 30% of workers' needs, while the remaining 70% have to rent accommodation in unsafe living conditions.

This reality shows that the task of developing housing for workers is an urgent and legitimate issue; workers want to have a safe place to live and have conditions to regenerate their labor more effectively.

There are still many shortcomings

Due to the lack of housing funds, in many industrial parks and export processing zones, workers have to rent houses from people in the surrounding area with temporary living conditions, cramped rooms, poor security and environmental sanitation, high rents, electricity and water bills, etc. In addition, public welfare facilities such as public kindergartens are still lacking, cultural houses, sports and entertainment areas, and activity spots for workers in concentrated industrial parks are almost non-existent. The lack of high schools, along with the mechanism that only students with household registration in Hanoi are eligible to register for public high schools, has caused frustration and more difficulties for migrant workers when they have to send their children to private schools with expensive costs that are not suitable for their income level.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Tam - Vice Chairman of Dong Anh District People's Committee said that currently, there are over 4,000 enterprises operating in industrial parks in the district; of which, nearly 22,500 workers are renting accommodation. Kim Chung commune alone has about 800 households with houses for rent and scattered in neighboring communes such as: Kim No, Dai Mach, Vong La, Hai Boi...

"The recent practice of COVID-19 prevention and control shows that the accommodation and living conditions of workers in boarding houses are not yet guaranteed. Most workers live in difficult conditions, without space to rest and restore their labor in the best way," said Ms. Tam.

Recently, at the Seminar with the theme "Ensuring safe accommodation for workers: From goals to actions", scientists and experts in many fields gave many opinions with the hope of contributing to solving difficulties and obstacles, as well as solutions to effectively implement policies on housing development for workers.

Ms. Bui Thi An - Member of the 13th National Assembly, President of the Hanoi Women Intellectuals Association, said that the need for housing for workers (both rental and purchase) is urgent, but in reality, there are still shortcomings in the implementation in recent times.

Affirming that the Government's Project "Investing in the construction of at least 1 million social housing apartments for low-income people and industrial park workers in the period of 2021 - 2030" is highly feasible, however, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Thi An, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, with its role and responsibility of taking care of workers, needs to recommend that the Government have a specific plan, accompanying workers so that they have a place to live and work with peace of mind.

"Specialized agencies must clearly distinguish the responsibilities of the State, enterprises and the workers themselves. All policies for preferential loans for workers to buy houses must be specific and transparent," Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Thi An emphasized.

Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha, Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Real Estate Association, said that developing housing for workers, laborers, students, and even civil servants in large cities is always an urgent and legitimate need. In particular, workers are the force that creates products for society, so it is necessary to create a working environment as well as a place to live that ensures living conditions for workers.

"The problem is how the State should manage so that small-scale apartment buildings and boarding houses are built and managed according to planning, structural safety, especially ensuring fire prevention and fighting; including strengthening management from the construction licensing stage, during the construction process to operation management. If planning is well managed, the consequences when fires and explosions occur will be limited...", Mr. Nguyen Manh Ha expressed his opinion.

Strive for 100% of industrial parks to have workers' housing

Determining that the need for housing for workers is legitimate and urgent, in the Plan for implementing the renovation of industrial parks in Hanoi No. 276/KH-UBND issued on November 22, the city sets a goal that by 2030, 100% of industrial parks will be planned and invested in building workers' housing and cultural institutions for workers. Accordingly, the city also strives for 100% of industrial parks to have a synchronous and modern infrastructure system built according to the approved plan.

Currently, among the 10 industrial parks in operation with a total area of ​​over 1,300 hectares, 09 industrial parks have completed infrastructure construction (100% occupancy rate), 01 industrial park is completing technical infrastructure and actively attracting investment projects. However, in these 10 industrial parks, there are only 04 housing projects for workers that have been and are under construction (part of which has been put into operation and use) with a total designed capacity of about 22,420 accommodations. Currently, the city has completed 8,388 accommodations and arranged 8,082 accommodations for workers.

In the coming time, the Hanoi People's Committee requests relevant departments, branches and units to review, renovate and synchronously build technical and social infrastructure in operating industrial parks to increase investment attraction and create a favorable environment for production activities of enterprises and workers.

According to the plan, the city will carry out the implementation of industrial park renovation, including: reviewing and implementing synchronous construction of infrastructure outside the industrial park fence; renovating and constructing synchronous infrastructure inside the industrial park; building cultural institutions and housing for workers, etc.

The review and improvement of infrastructure construction of industrial parks is carried out annually, striving to build synchronous, modern, green, clean and beautiful industrial parks in the city by 2030. In the immediate future, by 2025, at least 1 to 2 more worker housing areas will be built for operating industrial parks.

The city assigned the Hanoi Industrial and Export Processing Zones Management Board to preside over and coordinate with departments, branches and districts with industrial parks to review the investment situation in infrastructure construction of industrial parks and direct infrastructure investors to complete the unbuilt infrastructure parts from now until 2025. At the same time, coordinate with departments and branches to review the demand for workers' housing, review and adjust planning to create land funds for workers' housing and cultural facilities serving workers.

Director of Hanoi Department of Construction Vo Nguyen Phong said that according to the "Hanoi City Housing Development Program for the period 2021 - 2030", Hanoi aims to develop diverse types of housing, focusing on developing social housing, apartment buildings, rental housing, housing for workers in industrial parks to solve housing needs for people with different income levels, especially housing for those who are entitled to social housing support policies.

The city strives to have an average housing floor area of ​​32 square meters per person by 2030; the rate of social housing for rent will reach at least 10% of the social housing area in the project; in housing construction investment projects and urban areas, the rate of rental housing will reach at least 5% and the rate of rent-to-own housing will reach at least 10% of the total floor area of ​​apartment buildings in the project.

Based on the "Hanoi City Housing Development Program for the period 2021 - 2030", in the period 2021 - 2025, Hanoi will develop about 1.215 million square meters of new social housing; prepare to invest in 1 - 2 independent (concentrated) social housing areas and study and establish detailed planning for 2 - 3 areas.

Notably, according to the Government's Project "Investing in the construction of at least 1 million social housing apartments for low-income earners and industrial park workers in the period of 2021 - 2030", Hanoi was assigned a target of 56,200 apartments, including 18,700 apartments in the period of 2021 - 2025 and 37,500 apartments in the period of 2026 - 2030.

According to the Hanoi Department of Construction, there are currently 40 projects underway in the city, including 18 projects expected to be completed in the 2021-2025 period with approximately 0.869 million square meters of floor space and 12,137 apartments; 22 projects expected to be completed after 2025 with approximately 1.689 million square meters of floor space and 22,400 apartments.

In addition, the Hanoi People's Committee is organizing the preparation of documents requesting approval of investment policies for 5 investment projects to build independent (concentrated) social housing areas with a total land use scale of about 277 hectares. It is expected that these 5 projects will add about 2 - 2.5 million m2 of social housing floor space, meeting the huge demand of the city and contributing to the completion of social housing targets according to the above Project of the Government.