Poor disabled ask for housing from state Fri, 03/27/2009 2:26 PM  |  City Threatened with eviction, some 80 people living with disabilities, who formerly worked for a workshop for disabled people housed in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta pleaded Wednesday that they not be thrown into the streets and demanded their rights to housing from the state. The group has lived in the Swa Prasidya Purna workshop, set up by former first lady Tien Soeharto's foundation Harapan Kita, since 1975. The workshop employed them to work in a printing press and in a garment factory. After the 1997 Asian monetary crisis and the fall of former president Soeharto, the workshop was closed down for financial reasons in August 1998. The foundation told them to return to their hometowns in Surakarta and Yogyakarta by bus, but the latter refused. Following the closure, the group sued the foundation for illegally laying off workers and closing the workshop. They lost their case at the Supreme Court in 2005. However, the group still lives on the land. They work in cardboard packaging and have set up a cigarette stall, among others; they have also rented out some of the 2-hectare land area. The foundation, through its legal representatives, sent a written request to the group demanding that they evacuate the area in Cempaka Putih, giving a deadline of 10 days. The 10-day deadline falls on March 26. Foundation legal representative Yendrison said the group would be reported to the police if they did not evacuate the place immediately, and the foundation would request the help of law enforcers to evict them. The group answered the request, accompanied by Jakarta Legal Aid Institute lawyer Febi Yonesta, by asking the Foundation to cancel the intention to evict them, on the grounds that it would violate their human rights, specifically the right to housing and right to jobs, as well as their rights as a vulnerable group that is supposed to receive special treatment. "We asked Harapan Kita foundation to look for a solution that considers their rights to housing and jobs," Febi said. Febi also demanded the state be involved in settling problems faced by people living with disabilities. "They are very vulnerable to becoming homeless as many of them no longer have families," Febi said. Jalu, 57, said he had worked and lived in the workshop since he was in his early 20s. "We were workers back then, working in the printing press and receiving monthly pay. When the workshop was closed suddenly, it became a shelter not a workshop," he said. "If they ask us to leave, we will have to live on the streets," one of the group members said. Contacted by The Jakarta Post, Yendrison said the people had no right to stay there as the Supreme Court had rejected their request. "They even rented out some parts of the land without permission," he said. Yendrison said the foundation was still paying land taxes every year. "The foundation needs the land for other purposes," he said, without elaborating. - JP/ Prodita Sabarin http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/03/27/poor-disabled-ask-housing-state.html