Lenora on housing for single mothers

The Ministry of Local Government will be having more conversations with Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM), Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) and other civil society organisations (CSO) that are involved in the space where there are single women and children who need shelter.

Assistant Minister for Local Government Lenora Qereqeretabua said this while responding to a question raised by a participant on emergency housing for single mothers during the Women Invigorating the Nation (WIN) Convention in Suva last week.

She said the Public Rental Board, which fell under the ministry, had emergency housing for women in such situations. “A few weeks ago, there was a chat group I was part of and the ladies were looking for emergency housing for a workmate who had to, unfortunately, leave her home and was trying to get custody of her children,” she said. “We were all looking for emergency housing and PRB has emergency housing available.

“It is short-term, only temporary, until that lady can resolve the issue that she is being part of.” She said the housing problem in the country was huge and the ministry was trying to formalise informal settlements around the country.

“We are trying to make sure that housing is available, is affordable for everybody for all strata of income in Fiji but it is a big ask.

“We’ve been very fortunate over the past few months to have land-owning units come to us and offer and say ‘you guys can lease our land and can build housing’, so we’ve been very fortunate in that way.”