The focus of the past housing schemes was on ownership but now the ministry has ushered in a new era of rental housing for the first time. The scheme addresses the PM's vision of an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat by creating a sustainable ecosystem of affordable rental housing solutions for urban migrants/poor in cities.
Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, informed that ARHCs will provide urban migrants and poor a dignified and affordable rental living with necessary civic amenities near their workplace. In response to the reverse migration following the Covid-19 outbreak, the Union Cabinet had approved the ARHCs scheme to provide budget rental accommodation to poor and migrant workers in urban areas. This is estimated to benefit more than 350,000 households. Investment under ARHCs is expected to create 117.4-million-person-days of employment — 38.9 million direct and 78.4 million indirect. The ARHC scheme will function under two separate models whereby under the first model, existing government-funded vacant housing complexes will be converted into ARHCs and offered to concessionaires for 25 years to rent out to urban poor and migrant workers. Under the second model, construction, operation, and maintenance of the housing complexes will be by public or private entities on their own available vacant land.
