The ‘Baan Eua-Arthorn’ or ‘generous homes’ project to help Thai people with middle to low incomes own their own home is now officially open.

Located on Tambon Srisoonthorn, the project will house about 400 people whose needs will be judged by the Government Housing Bank (GHB).

The GHB was created by His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej as a special-purpose financial institution under the Finance Ministry’s supervision. Its mission is to help secure appropriate housing finance for the general public.

“Today we will give to those who have been selected and will slowly distribute to the others. After this is done we are also planning to improve their quality of life by introducing activities including guidelines for occupations, religious activities,
sports, environmental conservation and a drug awareness campaign,” Issara Somchai, the Social Development & Human Security minister said.

During its first twenty years, GHB operated both as a housing finance provider and as a housing project developer. However, in 1973, the government established the National Housing Authority to take over housing project development for the general public.

Their objectives included providing housing for low and middle income earners, providing financial assistance to those who need to have their own housing, to deal with the usiness of building construction and land acquisition, and to upgrade, demolish or elocate slums in order to assist people in achieving better living, and social and economic conditions.

Since 2003, 1,075,608 applicants have joined the list to become Baan Eua-Arthorn Project residents. The required residential units were allocated through a process of drawing lots.

Those who missed the chance to have a right in their first-priority selected project are still eligible for another project that they specified in their applications. There is no need for them to reapply. However, they will have to reconfirm their right to project accommodation.