Every day, a few figures in blue uniforms from Cao Thang Technical College (Cao Thang College - 65 Huynh Thuc Khang Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1) still enter and exit the school's dormitory at 931-937 Tran Hung Dao Street, District 5.
The 11-story building currently houses nearly 30 students and more than 50 families. This number will gradually decrease in the future until no one remains, as the building has deteriorated after about 60 years of existence.
From hotels, dormitories to hostels
Every afternoon, Mrs. Tran Thi Ngoc (84 years old) often slowly walks past the Ho Chi Minh City Orthopedic Hospital (Tran Hung Dao Street, Ward 1, District 5) near her house. Located next to the hospital is the dormitory building of Cao Thang Technical College.
"In 1962, my family moved from Tien Giang to Saigon, looking for a house near the hospital (at that time it was Sung Chinh Hospital founded by the Chinese) to make it convenient for my parents to receive medical treatment when they were old, and we saw this building next to the hospital.
My father used to be hospitalized in a room up there," Ms. Ngoc pointed to the upper floor of the dormitory, telling the reporter about her memory of the old building.
The "thin" structure of the building built before 1965 has been preserved to the present (Photos from left to right: Tam Linh, James Kidd Collection, Trinh Nguyen).
Cao Thang dormitory building was built around 1950-1960, originally the Victoria hotel which served as accommodation mainly for Americans coming to Saigon at that time.
"In 1966, the hotel was bombed, my father passed away before that, otherwise his body would not have been intact. After that, people rebuilt it, continuing to use it as a residential area for American officers. Later, it was converted into an apartment building for people to live in like it is now," said Ms. Ngoc.
The Victoria Hotel was destroyed after the bomb explosion on April 1, 1966 (Photo: Thomas W. Johnson - collected by manhhai).
Cao Thang Technical College was first established in 1906, its predecessor was the Asian Mechanical School when the French came to Saigon. However, before 1975, the above building was not used as a dormitory.
After 1975, the former American officer dormitory became a place to serve the accommodation needs of lecturers and students of Cao Thang School until now. Due to the nature of the school, which is mostly male, the dormitory only accepts male lecturers and students. Over time, to create conditions for income and expenses of the building, households were rented, and the number of students gradually decreased.
"Students are arranged on the highest floors, while there is no elevator. On days when I study all day, even though the dormitory is quite close to the school, at noon I would rather hang out at a coffee shop than go back to the 8th floor," a male student shared with reporters.
The dormitory is 3.4km from Cao Thang Technical College via Tran Hung Dao and Huynh Thuc Khang streets (Graphic: Tam Linh).
Outdated and dangerous
The dormitory building has a scale of 1 ground floor (used as a garage and office), 9 floors (for Cao Thang school staff and lecturers, households on floors 1-5, students on floors 7-8) and a rooftop, with nearly 200 people living inside.
Each floor consists of many apartments about 20m2 wide, with private bathrooms. The way to the floors has only one staircase more than 1m wide, the elevator is broken and not working.
The images show the deterioration and obsolescence of the current building (Photo: Trinh Nguyen).
Mr. Duong Anh Duc, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, signed a document directing the handling after receiving an official dispatch dated October 13 from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health reporting the serious deterioration of the Cao Thang School dormitory building, affecting the unit's operations and even threatening the lives of patients and doctors at the Orthopedic Trauma Hospital located next door.
In 2015, a piece of iron water pipe fell from the 8th floor of the dormitory through the corrugated iron roof and straight into the hospital's operating room, scaring doctors and patients.
In 2019, the dormitory had two fires within a few days.
Dormitory fire in 2019 (Photo: Dinh Thao).
The hospital was also once contaminated by wastewater from the dormitory's trash cans, causing the emergency area and the hallway leading to the operating room to become contaminated.
In 2019, the Department of Health proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to demolish the Cao Thang dormitory building and use that land to expand the emergency area of the Orthopedic Trauma Hospital.
At the end of 2020, Cao Thang Technical College announced a policy to gradually reduce the number of residents at dormitory 931-937 Tran Hung Dao (built in 1960).
"The load-bearing capacity of some structural components cannot meet the requirements of normal use, and a locally dangerous situation has appeared," the school stated in the inspection report dated December 22, 2020.
The school said it will gradually reduce the number of students living here until it is gone. Currently, only 27 students live on the 7th floor. At the same time, the school will stop renting out the pharmacy stalls on the ground floor from 2022.
However, the dormitory is under the management of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, so to resolve it, there must be consensus and direction from the superior management agency, so up to now, the relocation and handover of the city dormitory has not been carried out.
In November 2022, Dan Tri reporter contacted the People's Committee of Ward 1, District 5 (HCMC) to learn about the degradation of Cao Thang Dormitory.
"The local government's viewpoint is to support the relocation of the dormitory as soon as possible, because this place has degraded, greatly affecting the social security, urban beauty in the area and the general landscape of Ho Chi Minh City," shared a representative of the People's Committee of Ward 1, District 5.
The dormitory of Cao Thang Technical College, stained with time in the middle of the city, is not on the list of 474 old apartment buildings built before 1975 that need to be resolved in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Trinh Nguyen).
According to statistics from the Department of Construction, Ho Chi Minh City has 474 apartment buildings built before 1975. Many buildings have deteriorated, with an increasing trend over time. Class B and C apartments are successively becoming Class D and completely broken.
Through quality inspection, there are 14 level D apartments (severely damaged, dangerous); 116 level C apartments; 332 level B apartments; 12 apartments have been demolished or changed purpose.
On the residential side, most of the residents living in old apartments are elderly people, long-term workers, who do not have the financial means to move to a better place; partly because they are used to the living environment and the workplace is close, they "stick around" and do not want to move.
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