Webinar | Housing for The Urban Poor
ARHC has potential to be a game changer in housing
T
Urban Update Team
38 September 2020 | www.urbanupdate.in
he second edition of the series was based on the topic “Affordable Rental Housing for the Urban Poor - Demand, Supply and Management Dynamics”. Amrit Abhijat, Joint Secretary (Housing for All), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA); Mukta Naik, Fellow Researcher, Centre for Policy Research; Darshini Mahadevia, Professor, Faculty of Planning, Ahmedabad University; and Pankaj Kapoor, Founder & MD, Liases Foras Real Estate Rating and Research Pvt Ltd. The webinar was moderated by Dr Gautam Bhan, Senior Lead, IIHS; Vidya Bhushan, Deputy Director, LBSNAA and Swastik Harish, Senior Lead, IIHS. The webinar began with an opening statement by Vidya Bhushan who welcomed the panelists and introduced the topic of discussion. He mentioned that the Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) Scheme was launched by the MoHUA under the
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) to provide affordable living spaces for the working class in India. Swastik Harish spoke next and described the webinar as a space created “to debate and discuss all the dynamics that go into rental housing.” He mentioned that the webinar aims to put into the picture the aspects of rental housing future like nature of supply, public provision and management of rental housing. The first speaker was Amrit Abhijat who briefly explained the scheme and mentioned how the COVID-19 pandemic was a “push factor” for this scheme to be implemented. He addressed the reality where people do not always have income disposable for ownership of housing projects and how the PMAY is meant for such people, including those from economically weaker sections, low and middle-income groups. Economics and web can make it possible for ARHC owners to market what they have to offer with transparency. There will be need to establish contact between
