VALUING PEOPLE OVER PROPERTY:

SOCIAL HOUSING FOR COLOMBO'S WORKING CLASSES

- By Asha L. Abeyasekera, Lecturer, The Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York

Colombo’s working class— 50% of the city’s population—are central to its economy and vibrant culture, but have historically been marginal to Colombo’s development agenda. Following the end of the war, however, they came into sharp focus. The Urban Regeneration Programme (URP) classified 53% of Colombo’s population as living in “underserved settlements’ a term strategically deployed to deliberately misrepresent working-class neighbourhoods as ‘off-grid’. Homes and communities were reconceptualised as ‘underutilised land’ occupying ‘economic corridors’ that needed releasing for investment and beautification.

The solution? Forced evictions of more than 50,000 working-class families and relocating them to state-built high-rise flats in the outer peripheries of Colombo. These relocations fractured community and family ties, disrupted schooling and livelihoods, and disregarded residential histories dating back to colonial days.

The 900 acres working-class communities occupied only amounted to 10 percent of Colombo’s landmass - that is, fifty per cent of Colombo’s population living in ten per cent of land. By further reducing the allocation to 300 acres, the URP’s priorities are clear - it values property over people. Malls, five-star-hotels, and luxury apartments are being constructed over the demolished homes of the workingclass poor.

On the surface, urban regeneration may seem like a winwin: improve the city and provide better-quality housing. But years of research with affected communities since 2010 tell a story of stark injustice. As Colombo headed into the Municipal Council elections, we had to ask ourselves and the government we appointed: What kind of city were we building? Who was it for?

Right to the City