A SOCIAL survey conducted by the Housing Ministry reveals the vast majority of people living in squatters or informal settlements are well off and capable of securing proper housing.
Housing Ministry permanent secretary Manasa Lesuma said some residents were genuinely unable to afford proper housing due to financial constraints, but there were others who could.
“After the social survey conducted by the ministry, we realised a lot of those living in these informal settlements could actually afford it, but they still choose to stay,” Mr Lesuma said.
“We probably cannot relocate them because the ministry or the Government then becomes a third party. It’s really the responsibility of the owner of the land.”
Mr Lesuma said the Government was working on a new initiative to relocate people living in these informal settlements.
“And we’ve actually taken up this pilot project for the relocation of the Veidogo settlement in Vatuwaqa,” he said.
Mr Lesuma said there was also a separate relocation project partnership between the ministry and the Habitat for Humanity.
“To carry out the relocation, we have various approaches.
“We do social surveys to know the earning power of a family, those that deserve to be relocated, and those manipulating the system.”
“For people that are well off yet living in informal settlements and have properties rented out elsewhere, this segment of people are the ones that the landlord will have to evict.”
Mr Lesuma said that unless the landlords knew the type of information gathered through the social surveys, “they probably could take it further to the court”.
“We will only be able to evict people staying in settlements which we have development releases on.”
He said these were mainly settlements that had been developed and upgraded.
“The lots are subdivided, the tenants get proper roads that meet Fiji Roads Authority standards and proper utility services.”
Mr Lesuma attributed the mass rural to urban drift as the cause of congestion along the Suva-Nausori corridor.
“Right now there are close to 300 informal settlements throughout Fiji and the challenge is for us to see how we can upgrade some of these settlements.”