Urban Living – Lembah Subang Flats

Lembah Subang Flats

In an effort to clear the squatters the Federal government together with the Selangor government established the Lembah Subang flats some 10 years ago to provide transit accommodation while the squatters were cleared, flats built and the people re-housed. There are eight blocks at Lembah Subang with 392 units per block. Therefore there are over 3,000 units which are in three phases. It is a large area allocated on the road towards the Subang airport.

Yesterday I visited the area to meet up with a local community leader and some of his contacts to ascertain the situation there. A number of years ago while I was at YSS we undertook a survey and conducted some community based programs. However in recent years there has been a social neglect of this area and therefore there is a need to revisit these locations to ensure federal services are extended to these communities who are among the urban poor and low income. The Taskforce team will seek to assist the community through community intervention programs via Federal government agencies.

Pathma (41) Local community leaders

Mr Pathmnathan (41) has been living in the area for the past 10 years. Many years ago he worked as the staff of the local MCA assembly man Dato Sk Lim when he was the elected official for Kota Damansara.

Now Pathma, runs a small business at a small shop near the community hall at Block C with his wife selling vegetables, fish etc. Prior to shifting to this place he lived in SS2 and there he ran a food stall. Pathma is the local Indian leaders with his own NGO and active in MIC.

Housing situation & Local Issues

According to Pathma there are 1,200 units which are occupied by Indian families. Of them about 800 could not shift out to permanent accommodation for a number of reasons.

For example:-

• Some could not secure housing loans as they had defaulted and are black listed
• Some were larger families and therefore some members sifted but others remained hoping to secure another unit.
• Some could not secure the alternate unit as they were not part of the original squatter list
• Some are sub renting from a person who has the unit but not living there
• Some became more settled here and prefer to live on in this area as they have got adjusted to work, school and neighborhood

The situation here is discussions are going on between the federal government and state government to sell the units off to the current people residing. According to local people there is some tension as the federal government and state government are not from the same political party. Furthermore locals are unhappy with the Selangor state government from raising the rent from RM124 to RM250.

Urban neighborhood Renewal program

Like Desa Menteri 2 area, this place at Lembah Subang is also a higher densely populated area where there are about 1, 200 families which in effect mean over 5,000 Indians within a compact area. All the families living here are low income and part of the urban poor community.

While some community projects have been organized in these areas however what is urgently require are community based local social intervention programs along with local people empowerment. These are some areas that the Taskforce will be working with federal government agencies and Pemandu’s NKRA-LIH unit to address and enhance access and social inclusion.