Population management in apartment buildings and new urban areas: Many shortcomings

(Baonghean) - The rapid urbanization with the investment and construction of many high-rise apartments creates a highlight in the urban architecture of Vinh City, contributing to solving a large number of housing needs for the people. However, the management of residents in these new apartments and urban areas is giving rise to many problems that need to be addressed.remove

The people are... forgotten

Normally, people living in any administrative unit of block or hamlet are guaranteed the following rights: participating in activities of mass organizations, contributing to building a united and progressive community; receiving political news, policies and laws of the Party and State; their children enjoy a recreational and entertainment environment through sports fields and cultural houses built in residential areas, etc. However, for residents in apartment buildings and new urban areas in Vinh City, those seemingly minimal needs are very luxurious for them. Mr. Nguyen Hong - a resident of CT,B apartment building, Nghi Phu new urban area invested by Vinaconex 9 Construction Joint Stock Company, said: "My family has been living here for more than a year but has never had a meeting in this building. Although there is a Project Management Board here, every time the stairs are broken or the water pipes are broken, contacting them to repair them is "exhausting", so there are days when the water pipes break for a whole week before they are repaired, let alone ensuring other rights for the people". Also living in the new urban area of ​​Nghi Phu, Ms. Le Thi Ha, in the adjacent house area, was upset: “For nearly 10 years since moving here, I have not been able to participate in any meetings, because there is no community center or cultural center, nor is there any organization that organizes or mobilizes meetings, no one manages, and no one knows whether we stay or go. Although the family has sold the land and house in the old residence, because there is no Party organization in this new urban area, for nearly 10 years now, my husband and I have still gone to the old residence in Le Loi ward to participate in union activities and Party cell activities.”

Nghi Phu new urban area, invested by Vinaconex 9, has not yet built a community house.

Not only Mr. Hong and Mrs. Ha, but this is the common situation of families in most high-rise apartment buildings and new urban areas in Vinh City today. Many residents in high-rise apartment buildings and new urban areas ask: Why are there no community activity houses or cultural houses in apartment buildings and new urban areas? In some apartment buildings and new urban areas, on the Mid-Autumn Festival and Children's Day on June 1, because they love their children and do not want their children to be disadvantaged compared to their peers in other residential areas, families organize for their children right in the building's hallway or in front of the apartment building's lobby. Some people are also worried that if someone in a high-rise apartment building passes away and there is no community activity house or cultural house to hold a funeral service before sending the deceased to their eternal place, who will take care of the funeral like in other administrative blocks and neighborhoods? Residents of apartment buildings and new urban areas believe that investors only focus on their own interests, which are building and selling houses, dividing lots and selling land, and fulfilling their obligations. They do not care about the rights of the people, but are... "abandoning their children".

In addition, currently, in apartment buildings and new urban areas, human resource management is also very difficult. There are apartments owned by the owners, but due to the slow progress in granting certificates of house ownership and land use rights, these people have one household registration and another residence. There are apartments that are only bought and then rented out or bought and sold many times, while the responsibility of the project management board is limited, so the control and management of the population in apartment buildings and urban areas is facing many difficulties; no one knows who comes, no one confirms who leaves; those who like can register for temporary residence or temporary absence, and those who do not can do it. Also due to the lack of cultural houses, community activities, and the lack of an established apartment building management board, it is difficult to bring the policies and laws of the Party and the State to the residents of apartment buildings and new urban areas.

Whose responsibility is it?

The cause of the above situation is different in each place. For example, at the apartment building and the residential area adjacent to the new urban area Nghi Phu, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Cuong - Director of the Project Management Board, the initial planning did not arrange for the construction of a cultural house or a community house. However, in practice, the need for a cultural house or a community house is very necessary. Therefore, recently, the unit has proposed to the Provincial People's Committee to allow the planning adjustment to reserve 237m2 for a cultural house. Or at the Doi Cung apartment project invested by Hanoi Housing Investment and Development Joint Stock Company No. 30, although there are enough over 250 households to establish a new administrative block (according to the regulations of the Ministry of Home Affairs), because there is no community house or cultural house, there are not enough conditions to establish a new block here. This is causing public outrage and there have been petitions sent to the authorities. In addition to the above two issues, there are many apartment building projects, although they have arranged to build community activity houses in the apartment building according to the planning, but have not established an apartment building management board to hand over and put the community activity houses into use for the common purpose of the community, but there are projects that are serving the needs and interests of the enterprise. According to a representative of Hanoi Housing Investment and Development Joint Stock Company No. 30, this enterprise currently has a number of projects with community activity houses such as the East Lenin Avenue apartment building, Quang Trung apartment building, but because apartment projects of other investors in Vinh City have not yet established an apartment building management board, this enterprise has not established one to put these activity houses into operation. There are projects with community houses, but the number of households living in the housing area is too small to meet the conditions for establishing a management board (according to regulations, 50% of the houses must have households living in them to establish a project management board).

Mr. Le Quoc Hong - Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee, said: As of May 31, 2014, Vinh City has 46 new apartment buildings and urban areas put into use, with over 9,000 plots of land and apartments; of which 2,984 households, with 9,405 people have come to live. Recognizing the shortcomings in human resource management in apartment buildings and new urban areas, in 2013, the city issued the Project "Administrative management of apartment buildings and new urban areas in Vinh City for the period 2013 - 2020", but the administrative management only stops at the management of temporary residence and temporary absence. Currently, the city is focusing on directing wards and communes to coordinate with investors to review the number of households in apartment buildings and new urban areas, and the conditions of social infrastructure. On that basis, the city will consider and weigh which new apartment buildings and urban areas are qualified to establish new administrative blocks and hamlets, and which must be merged into existing blocks and hamlets, thereby bringing the apartment buildings and urban areas to the wards and communes for management, ensuring the rights and obligations of the people.

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