Residents at an apartment building at 137 Ly Thuong Kiet Street in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City have been looking forward to moving out of the property as it is badly deteriorated.

The city made a decision to evacuate residents from the ramshackle building in 2018 but residents are still suffering from the bad conditions of their accommodations.

The apartment building smells musty despite the sun these days.

Dusty electric wires and water supply pipelines criss-cross the walls there.

Lan Anh, a resident at the apartment building, said the building floods and leaks during rains and stays dank on sunny days.

The walls have been degraded with peeling paint and some segments even collapsing.

She rents an apartment at the building with her husband for over VND1.5 million (US$63) per month due to their low incomes.

As they are poor laborers, they have to resign themselves to betting their lives on the danger of living there, Lan Anh said.

Pointing at a locked apartment next door, she added that its owner moved to another place as the apartment has seriously deteriorated. 

Meanwhile, a dilapidated apartment measuring several square meters on the ground floor is home to the three-generation family of Trinh Thi Khanh, 80.

Khanh said her apartment floods whenever it rains heavily. However, it is currently leaking even on sunny days.

The administration in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City has planned to relocate residents at the apartment building at 137 Ly Thuong Kiet Street to 55 apartments of block A of the Phu Tho apartment building in District 11.

However, the Phu Tho apartment building has already deteriorated as it was earlier used for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The municipal authorities asked the Housing Management and Construction Inspection Center under the Department of Construction to repair it.

Nguyen Thanh Hai, director of the center, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the repair of the 55 apartments at the Phu Tho apartment building finished in late 2022 but the work has yet to be checked, so the center cannot hand over the apartments for use.

Moreover, shared facilities at block A, such as corridors, elevators, and water and electricity supply and fire prevention and fighting systems, are run-down and have yet to be repaired.

The facilities are under the management of District 11 Public Services Co. Ltd. but the company has no fund for the repair.

Pham Quoc Phuong, deputy director of District 11 Public Services Co. Ltd., said the People’s Committee of District 11 had proposed the municipal Department of Construction transfer the shared facilities to the Housing Management and Construction Inspection Center for management.

The district also suggested the municipal People’s Committee provide funds for the Housing Management and Construction Inspection Center to upgrade the shared facilities, Phuong informed.

Meanwhile, vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Tan Binh District Truong Tan Son said the district had written to the municipal Department of Construction urging the relocation of households at the apartment building at 137 Ly Thuong Kiet Street.

“The apartment building has been severely deteriorated. The district is always willing to join hands [with relevant agencies] to ensure that residents will have safer accommodations,” Son said.

The three-floor apartment building at 137 Ly Thuong Kiet Street has 34 apartments and was built before 1975.

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