Fighting for
Adequate Housing
Tug-of-war between Xizhou Tribe and the Government for the Right to Adequate Housing in Xizhou Tribe
Although both the Constitution and United Nations conventions affirm the right of people to adequate housing, the Xizhou Tribe has repeatedly faced demands from government authorities to relocate.
Since the 1980s, the government has implemented a policy of government-owned land allocation along the banks of the Xindian River. However, due to a lack of understanding among tribal residents about this policy and failure to register land numbers through legal channels, their settlement was designated as a "river reservation", making the entire Xizhou Tribe area considered as "illegal construction".
By 2007, then Taipei County Magistrate initiated the "Bitan Regeneration Project", leading to the reclassification of the river reservations and once again designating the Xizhou Tribe as illegal construction. The government actively enforced relocation to indigenous public housing (Sanxia Long-en Section indigenous short-term resettlement area).
However, the high-rise apartment lifestyle conflicted with the tribe's traditional housing pattern. Additionally, factors such as lack of community self-governance and poor rent payment further exacerbated the situation. Tribal members were unwilling to move into the public housing. What’s more, the tribe members expressed their willingness to address flooding issues by constructing additional floors to block floodwaters, followed by cleaning up afterward.
Nevertheless, since their original houses were already deemed illegal constructions, the idea of adding floors became impractical.According to local residents, the government even forcibly demolished tribal houses without proper notification, compelling residents to leave their ancestral lands, resulting in the plight of elderly tribe members living alone left homeless.
In response, the tribe's self-rescue association fiercely resisted, advocating for the right to remain in their original homes. With support from various sectors of society, the government eventually decided to delay the demolition in 2008.After 2010, the government initiated the "Xizhou Amis Tribe Living Cultural Park" project, constructing houses on the elevated riverbank near the original tribe, gradually transforming it into the present-day Xizhou Tribe.
