It is even more difficult for them to find a house that has not developed cracks. And, if they do somehow find such an accommodation, it is costly enough to burn a deep hole in their pockets.
It has almost become a regular chore for Sandeep Roy, who hails from Biratnagar, Morang, to go looking for a safe accommodation from early in the morning. He has been living in a rented room in Kathmandu for the last seven years. He takes preparation classes for IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT and GRE at three different institutes in the capital and earns Rs 30,000-40,000 per month."The rooms that I found safe and affordable were far from my office and my children's school. Other rooms that I found nearby my workplace and children's school were too costly," said Roy. He had started looking for a new accommodation after the April 25 earthquake damaged his rented house at Samakhusi, but he has been unable to find a proper accommodation for his four-member family.
Tired of living under the tent, the Roy family finally returned their village last week. "Though I have returned home, I call my friends and colleagues in Kathmandu everyday asking them to find me a proper accommodation. I hope I'll soon find an accommodation and be able to get back to work," added he.
Similar is the plight of Shreejana Shrestha from Kulekhani, who worked as a beautician at Creative Hair and Beauty Saloon in Bijuli Bazaar. She was living in a rented house at Basantpur, which was damaged in the quake. She had also been living under a tent since the quake but she returned home after being unable to find a room to rent.
"I had to quit my work in the capital and return to my village," she said.
Students and businessmen from outside the Valley have also been affected. "After I failed to find a rented room, my classmate has been kind enough to share a rented room he and his friends were living in," said a twelfth grader, Dinesh Sah, who hails from Janakpur.
Likewise, Vidhan Rana, founder of Biruwa Ventures, which had shared office space with six other business houses, has not been able to find the space for his own office though the others have been relocated.
"The owner of an office space that I found demanded Rs 2, 25,000 a month. Earlier before the earthquake, he charged only 150,000 a month," said he.
Thousands of people, who are staying in the capital for studies, job, and business, have been affected after the houses they lived in were damaged in the earthquake. Some of them are still living under tents, while others have already returned to their home towns.
It is estimated that fifty percent of Kathmandu's population comprises people living in rented accommodation. Although there is no actual data of the number of people, who have not been able to find rented rooms following the earthquake, an estimate can be made by calculating the number of destroyed and damaged houses.
Over 3, 22,000 housing units were rented out in Kathmandu, as per the National Population and Housing Census 2011. The recent earthquake destroyed over 73,000 houses, and damaged over 67,000 in the Valley, including Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur districts, according to Nepal Disaster Risk Reduction (NDRR) portal. The data of the houses destroyed and damaged by the earthquake shows that thousands of people living in rented houses have become homeless.
Taking advantage of the situation, some house owners have reportedly increased rental charges of rooms and apartments, according to some tenants.
Issuing a press statement last month, the home ministry had warned of stern legal action against house owners found hiking rental charge. The ministry also issued the directive to chief district officers of all the three districts in the Valley to take action against such house owners. However, the authority's directive has yet to be implemented.
But it is not only the renters who are facing this problem. Even some of the house owners, whose houses were destroyed in the quake, have been going through the same problem in Kathmandu. House owners whose houses were damaged or destroyed in the quake have also become homeless.
Binod Pradhan, of Bijeshwori, whose house was destroyed in the earthquake, ran from pillar to post to find a rented accommodation until his friend found a three-room flat for him. The flat costs him Rs 10,000 per month.
"Had my friend not helped me, I would not have been able to find a rental housing so soon," Shrestha told Republica. However, other house owners, whose houses were destroyed in the earthquake, have not been as fortunate. Some of them are still living in temporary shelters.
Meanwhile, talking to Republica, Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, spokesperson at the Home Ministry, said action would be taken against house owners fleecing tenants. He, however, admitted the failure of authorities to implement the ministry's directive due to lack of proper mechanism.
"The main problem in enforcing the directive is lack of standards to fix rental charges," according to Dhakal. This has also shown how ill-managed the housing sector in Kathmandu Valley is. "We are currently carrying out need assessment before formulating the government's policy for managing the rental housing sector," Padam Kumar Mainali, spokesperson for the Ministry of Urban Development, told Republica.
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