Ho Chi Minh City clears thousands of houses along the canal, everyone has a new place to live

Anyone who is evicted has a place to live.

The environmental improvement project on the North bank of the Doi Canal (District 8) will clear 1,571 cases. Of these, 1,005 houses will be cleared. Notably, among the cleared cases, more than 900 houses do not have certificates of house and land use rights.

The family of Mr. Nguyen Minh Tri (65 years old, on Pham The Hien Street) consists of 6 people crammed into a house of nearly 30 square meters, but more than half of the house is located on the canal. Mr. Tri said that his family came here before 1975, and has been living here temporarily ever since.

"If we leave here, we don't know where to live. With a house this big and no papers, if we get demolished, the compensation money won't be enough to buy a piece of land to settle down!" - Mr. Tri worried.

Hearing the explanation that Ho Chi Minh City plans to pilot a program allowing households living along canals to buy or rent social housing, Mr. Tri said he was very happy but wished to be resettled not too far from where he currently lives.

Many houses are encroaching on the Doi canal. Photo: Anh Tu — Many houses encroach on the Doi canal. Photo: Anh Tu

Vice Chairman of District 8 People's Committee Pham Quang Tu said that the district has nearly 10,000 houses on and along canals, many of which are concentrated in the Doi Canal area. The district is currently focusing on relocating 1,500 houses on the north bank of the Doi Canal to improve the environment and landscape of this area.

“District 8 has developed a resettlement plan and proposed a housing fund to prepare for the project. In particular, it has drawn experience from projects in which cases that do not meet resettlement conditions are considered for leasing or installment purchase of apartments to stabilize life after clearance,” said Mr. Tu.

Similarly, the Xuyen Tam canal renovation project through Binh Thanh and Go Vap districts had 2,257 cases of clearance.

Mr. Ho Phuong - Vice Chairman of Binh Thanh District People's Committee said that the project through the district has 2,122 clearance cases, of which 1,273 are blank clearance cases.

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City is speeding up procedures to build social housing at land plot No. 4 Phan Chu Trinh (Ward 12) with an area of over 12,000 m2, with 850 apartments to serve the resettlement of households cleared of white land in Binh Thanh district.

Pilot program for households on canals to rent and buy social housing

Mr. Ly Thanh Long - Chief of Office of the Department of Construction of Ho Chi Minh City said that currently, most of the projects to relocate houses on and along canals have complicated land and housing legal issues such as houses without legal documents on land use rights, encroached houses, houses partly on land and partly on canals... leading to slow negotiations and compensation, prolonging the project. Many cases continue to complain, not agreeing to receive compensation and hand over the site.

Especially houses on canals, completely located on water, temporary, completely without legal status, ownership of house and land, so policies on compensation, support and resettlement are not applied.

Ho Chi Minh City will clear more than 1,300 households to renovate Xuyen Tam canal. Photo: Anh Tu

However, in the 2024 Land Law (being submitted to the National Assembly for approval to take effect from August 1, 2024), cases of land recovery with or without housing on the land (if the locality has conditions for land fund and housing) will be resettled with residential land or housing in many forms (sale, lease, lease-purchase) to ensure housing for people whose land is recovered.

Currently, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee has assigned the Department of Construction to preside over the development of a pilot project allowing households with houses on canals and ditches that are being relocated for urban renovation to rent or buy social housing.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction is asking localities to review and count the number of houses in the area; update and supplement projects and canal routes... From that basis, localities will propose social housing funds and build new ones to serve the resettlement of cases affected by the project of relocating houses on and along canals.

According to the Department of Construction, if the plan is implemented synchronously, it will create a breakthrough in developing about 14,416 apartments in the 2026-2030 period to serve resettlement for the canal renovation and embellishment project.

In addition to renovating Xuyen Tam canal and the northern bank of Doi canal, Ho Chi Minh City is about to relocate nearly 2,000 houses for 3 projects.

The Van Thanh Canal renovation project, about 1.5km long, through Binh Thanh District, has a total investment of more than 6,100 billion VND. There are 1,063 households living along the bank that must be relocated with a compensation cost of more than 4,900 billion VND.

The Hy Vong Canal renovation project (Tan Binh District) is over 1.1km long with a total investment of nearly 2,000 billion VND. The project is expected to relocate 179 houses with compensation capital of about 1,595 billion VND.

The project to renovate and expand Ton That Thuyet Street and the green park along the Te Canal (District 4) relocated 741 houses with a total compensation of about 2,089 billion VND.

Source: https://laodong.vn/xa-hoi/tphcm-giai-toa-hang-nghin-can-nha-ven-kenh-ai-cung-co-cho-o-moi-1355950.ldo