Jakarta. The Housing Ministry is partnering with tech giant GoTo Gojek Tokopedia to provide 2,000 units of subsidized housing for the company’s ride-hailing drivers, in a bid to improve housing access for informal sector workers in the gig economy.

Housing Minister Maruarar “Ara” Sirait met with GoTo CEO Patrick Sugito Walujo on Tuesday at his office in Wisma Mandiri, Central Jakarta, to formalize the plan. The initiative follows President Prabowo Subianto’s directive to ensure housing assistance reaches low-income groups — defined as individuals earning up to Rp 7 million ($414) per month if single, or Rp 8 million if married.

However, one major challenge is that many ride-hailing drivers do not have consistent or fixed monthly incomes that meet these thresholds.

“We’re talking about subsidized housing for Gojek partners — 2,000 units in total, with 1,000 allocated for two-wheel drivers and 1,000 for four-wheel drivers,” Maruarar said.

The program builds on GoTo’s previous efforts to improve driver welfare since 2018, though those initiatives have remained limited in scale. With government support, the housing project is expected to reach a broader base of drivers.

GoTo CEO Patrick welcomed the collaboration and expressed hope that many of the company’s drivers would benefit from the program. “We’re ready to work with state-owned lender Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN) and other relevant institutions to create an accessible program for our partners,” he said.

Patrick added that enabling drivers to become homeowners and manage their mortgage payments successfully would open the door for scaling up the program. “We hope many drivers will not only own homes but manage their mortgages well. That will allow us to expand the initiative further,” he said.

GoTo’s Chief of Public Policy and Government Relations Ade Mulya noted that the company had already piloted a similar housing program, but faced several implementation challenges — particularly in meeting administrative and eligibility requirements.

“There are hurdles on the ground, including documentation issues. We’re working on refining the model, possibly by linking homeownership eligibility to driver performance,” Ade said.