Thirty-one evicted Borei Keila community families received flats and another four families got $15,000 buyouts on Saturday as part of a “lucky draw” organised to resolve their years-long land dispute.

Mean Chanyada, administration director at Phnom Penh Municipal Hall and the president of the committee tasked with resolving the dispute, said that only 31 flats were still available at Borei Keila, “but 35 families were determined by the joint committee’s evaluation [to be eligible for flats], so the committee decided to put in four lucky draw sheets that are worth $15,000 each instead”.

Ly Sunheng, one of the four to draw the $15,000, said she was happy with the payout, but “would have preferred the house to the money, since I don’t want to live from the Borei Keila area”.

Sunheng said she would use the cash to get out of debt and to buy a plot of land for a house on the outskirts of the city.

According to Sia Phearum, president of the NGO Housing Rights Task Force and a member of the resolution committee, 91 of 154 aggrieved families from the Borei Keila community have had their claims addressed.