Indonesia must treat housing as a resilient, community-focused right

Tambora’s narrow, sun-starved streets epitomise the housing challenges confronting Indonesia’s rapidly urbanising population. The Jakarta provincial government has reduced the city’s slum footprint from 445 to 211 areas since 2017, yet the remaining settlements still house hundreds of thousands in insecure and inadequate conditions. National data from Statistics Indonesia and the Public Housing and Settlements Ministry show that as of March 2026, 9.29 million households lack homeownership and 18.01 million live in dwellings that fail basic livability standards, with Jakarta alone representing roughly 824,000 such households.

Three forces drive this crisis: unaffordable land and building costs outpacing incomes, tenure insecurity especially in riverbank and coastal kampungs, and escalating climate risks, including land subsidence rates of 14-19 cm per year in Semarang and Demak. The article argues that addressing the right to adequate housing requires a shift toward resilient, community-led ecosystems that prioritize dignity over mere shelter.