Housing and Local Government Ministry sets aside RM20m to help the poor

SIBU: The Housing and Local Government Ministry has set aside RM20mil as part of the national effort to eradicate hard-core poverty in the country. Among these projects is a programme to help poor families pay their house rentals.

Deputy minister Datuk Lau Hui Chew said each local authority in the country has to appoint a programme coordination officer after first identifying eligible poor families in their respective jurisdictions for the house rental aid. The other projects include programmes to generate family income, providing education and training, and giving aid to the poor in urban areas.

The ministry has set up a data centre to help in the planning and monitoring of these projects, said Lau. He said more than 140 local authorities nationwide are involved in this urban poverty eradication programme. The Government targets to reduce the overall poverty rate to 2.8% by 2010, he told reporters here on Saturday. In Sarawak, a family with a household monthly income of below RM777 is considered poor while a household with an income of RM482 and below is considered hardcore poor. In the other states, families are considered poor if their monthly incomes are between RM583 (the rate in Pahang) and RM886 (Sabah).

The hardcore poor would be households with a monthly income of between RM355 and RM492. Lau said the local authorities should refer to the census carried out in 58 towns nationwide, which was carried out last year by the Economic Planning Unit and the Statistics Department.

For towns not covered by the census, he said the poor families would be identified through other means. He said in Sarawak, the Kuching City North Commission, Sibu Municipal Council, Meradong District Council and Julau District Council are in the process of registering the poor and hardcore poor families. Lau urged non-governmental organisations to help in the programmes.