Residents live in fear as they face falling debris and structural damage
JOHOR BARU: With nowhere else to go, retiree Pang Ah Lek continues to live in an apartment that has been officially declared unsafe for over two years.
The 78-year-old, who is among almost 200 people risking their lives living in two blocks of the Taman Jaya flats that have been declared unsafe by the Malaysian Public Works Institute (Ikram), said he bought his unit four decades ago.
“I bought it when I had a stable income working as a clerk for a private company in Singapore.
“Now, I no longer have a job. I rely solely on my savings to support myself and my wife. I know that the apartment is not safe, and I constantly worry about that, but where else can I go?
“Whatever money we can spare goes into paying for utilities, food and our other basic needs,” he told The Star in an interview at the flats here.
Pang, who has been living at the flat since 1984, said he could not afford the RM250 monthly rent to live in a house under the People’s Housing Project (PPR).
“There was previously a suggestion for us to be relocated to a PPR, but I cannot afford the rent since I am no longer working.
“I bought this house so that my wife and I would have a place to live when we are old. We never expected to have to think about paying rent at this age,” he said.
