People's Court is a residential
neighbourhood within the city of
George Town in the
Malaysian state of
Penang
Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...
. Situated within the
city's central business district, it comprises three four-storey blocks of walk-up flats.
Built in 1961, it was the first low-cost
public housing in Malaysia and remains one of the few populated residential pockets within the
city's UNESCO World Heritage Site.
History
After Malaya's independence in 1957, the George Town City Council (predecessor to the present-day
Penang Island City Council
The City Council of Penang Island is the council that administers the city of Pulau Pinang, which includes the entirety of Penang Island, Malaysia. The city council, which has jurisdiction over an area of , falls under the purview of the Penang s ...
) faced the challenge of providing affordable housing for the urban poor. A significant number of the city's residents lived in substandard houses within urban kampongs and shophouses. According to a councillor at the time, "there are about 30 kampongs within George Town's limits with about 5,539 substandard houses inhabited by approximately 50,153 people. In about 19 kampongs the Malays are predominant and in the rest there is a mixture of Malays/Chinese and Malays/Indians."
The George Town City Council sought to address affordable housing as a crucial electoral issue, particularly after the
Labour Party retained control in the
1959 local election.
As part of their efforts, the city government initiated People's Court, the first low-cost public housing project in Malaya. The project consisted of three blocks of four-storey walk-up flats arranged in an 'L' shape within the
city centre
A city centre is the commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely equivalent terms exist in other languages, such as "" in Fren ...
's Chinatown.
These blocks include 26 shoplots, ranging from to , along with 79 residential units, ranging between to .
Since its completion in 1961, People's Court has served as a major source of low-cost housing within George Town's
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
.
In spite of the continuing depopulation of the city centre, People's Court remains one of the few inhabited residential areas within the locality.
The three blocks are currently owned and managed by the Penang Island City Council.
References
{{Penang
Neighbourhoods in George Town, Penang