People have difficulty accessing social housing

Although expected to be a "lifesaver" for low-income people and workers in big cities, social housing is still a distant dream for many people.

Although expected to be a “lifesaver” for low-income earners and workers in big cities, social housing remains a distant dream for many people. Not only is the supply limited, but there are also barriers from policies and approval procedures that are heavy on formalities and administration.

People are tired of complicated procedures

When the Him Lam Thuong Thanh social housing project opened online registration, the scene of people lining up from early morning at the Hanoi Public Administration Center, Branch No. 6 (Long Bien) continued for many days. The large number of applications overloaded the reception department at the Land Registration Office. Officials had to work continuously, while people struggled to wait for many hours.

However, many people who had been queuing since morning still had to leave because they lacked the required documents. The application for social housing requires many types of certificates - from housing status, income, to demographics, and requires stamps from many different agencies such as workplace, locality, social insurance, etc.

People lined up from early morning at Hanoi Public Administration Center, Branch No. 6 (Long Bien) to submit applications to buy social housing.

Mr. DVT (1993), a technical staff, said that his family had rented a cramped room for 3 years, and now faced the risk of missing out on the opportunity due to overlapping procedures: “I received the confirmation code from the Investor and immediately applied for the documents. But the appointment with the local authorities fell on May 26, while the system stopped accepting applications from May 25. I followed the correct procedures but still could not submit them on time, I felt very unfair,” Mr. DVT shared.

Having rented for a dozen years, Ms. Le Thi Thuy, a junior high school teacher in Long Bien district, was very happy when she heard about social housing and immediately started doing the paperwork. However, when she did it, she felt extremely tired because of the cumbersome process: "I had to get confirmation from my school, my husband's office, then go to the ward to register my household and housing status. There were days when I went back and forth 5-7 times and still couldn't finish." She was upset because each office required a different form of document, and many times her application was returned because of wording errors. "I'm a teacher and I still feel confused. How can ordinary people manage?", Ms. Thuy said.

Social housing model. Illustration photo.

According to Ms. Pham Thi Mien, Deputy Director of VARS IRE, the biggest obstacle is the overly complicated verification process and the lack of data synchronization between agencies. The law requires investors to fully disclose information, but many places have not done so properly, leading to people struggling in the "matrix" of procedures, prone to errors, delays and lost opportunities.

Need real policy, not just on paper

According to the Ministry of Construction , from 2021 to 2025, Vietnam aims to build more than 1 million social housing units, but to date only about 20% have been completed. The main reason is that the land fund for social housing is limited, while real estate businesses are not interested because of low profits and complicated investment procedures.

In addition, many social housing projects are located in areas far from the center, with poor infrastructure and a lack of basic amenities such as public transport, schools, and medical stations, making it even more difficult for low-income people to access. Mr. Tran Van Hung, a technology driver in Hanoi, shared: “I see a social housing project more than 20 km from my workplace, there is no bus, and the school is far away. Buying a house like that will only add to the hardship.”

One of the main reasons why people have difficulty accessing social housing is the inflexible approval process. Those in need must prove many strict conditions such as: not having a house, not having their name on real estate, having a household registration or a long-term temporary residence certificate (KT3) in the locality, an income level not exceeding the prescribed threshold... Accompanied by a series of documents: income confirmation from the company, confirmation of not owning a house from the locality, family circumstances confirmation...

Illustration: KT

However, in reality, not everyone can prove these conditions smoothly. Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh, an employee at a stationery company in Ha Dong, Hanoi, in Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone (HCMC), shared: “I have worked here for nearly 7 years, have KT3, but my company does not declare the actual salary because they want to reduce insurance payments. I did not have enough documents to confirm my income, so I was eliminated from the first round.”

For social housing to truly reach those in need, experts say it is necessary to comprehensively reform policies from the approval stage to post-handover supervision. Digitalization of the process, transparency of criteria and list of eligible buyers should be promoted. Income verification should also be more flexible, not just based on salary.

Source: https://baohungyen.vn/dan-kho-tiep-can-nha-o-xa-hoi-3181792.html