SOCIAL HOUSING AND COMPREHENSIVE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: SOME ANALYSES FROM PRACTICAL LAW IN VIETNAM

Abstract

A suitable, reasonable, stable and convenient accommodation for living and working is a very legitimate human need, because it is a necessary condition for people to feel secure in living and working as well as studying. Creating accommodation on your own, especially for those with limited income, is very difficult. Social housing is one of the suitable guidelines and policies for the majority of people who have difficulty in access to housing in the real estate market. This is a correct, humane policy and one of the effective measures to ensure balanced development of the real estate market. This becomes even more necessary in countries that are transforming their economies towards industry with the formation of more and more concentrated economic zones and the movement of labor between localities. Due to their “far from home” conditions, these migrant workers mostly live in dormitory set up in areas where the concentrated economic activity takes place. In fact, this number of self-created dormitory only meets a small part of the people's accommodation needs. Moreover, due to spontaneous development and making the most of land to build accommodation, it is difficult for workers living in this area to access basic social services such as health and education, especially preschool and primary education for their future generations. Therefore, the development of social housing is a suitable solution to meet workers' needs, and at the same time, it can ensure the infrastructure system, especially the health and education infrastructure, so that the workers feel secure to live and work. However, social housing policies and laws in Vietnam have faced many difficulties in practical implementation. Therefore, most social housing is still “on paper”, in legal regulations or in planning. This practice requires the effective and timely solutions to put the legal provisions on housing into practice in the spirit that the regulations must be implemented in practice.