Alternative housing priorities for low-income migrants in Jakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT This empirical study suggests an alternative housing priority for the housing pathways of low-income migrants. An economic perspective has been the dominant paradigm in determining urban housing trajectories and has been cemented as the pedestal of the housing provision programme. However, this study is conducted in the highest density sub-districts of each of Jakarta’s five municipalities with mixed research method, evinces that forced eviction is one of the pivotal determinants of the housing pathway of low-income households and spatial dispersal is embedded in webs of kinship. Having lost their livelihood assets through hazard or eviction, low-income migrants move to the city to recuperate their loses by living with or near other family members. Through collective efficacy, their place attachment solidifies and confines their housing pathway to a short distance from other family and kin members.