THE Housing and Urban Deve-lopment Coordinating Council (HUDCC) has pushed back its timetable for the completion of the comprehensive housing road map to the first quarter of 2017.
HUDCC Chairman and Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo said the World Bank is helping the HUDCC create the road map, as well as a postdisaster shelter response policy and program for the housing sector.
Robredo said only the postdisaster shelter response policy and program, which the World Bank is also crafting with the HUDCC, will be completed by the end of the year.
“The World Bank said maybe we will not be able to complete the road map by the end of the year. They asked to be given until the first quarter of next year,” Robredo said. “We’re willing to wait as long as everything is in order.” She said she recently met with the World Bank and raised the need to craft a comprehensive road map. Robredo added that the HUDCC’s current data came from last year’s housing summit.
Robredo said the postdisaster response is also needed, especially after she discovered the housing problems in Supertyphoon Yolanda-affected areas.
Three years after the typhoon, affected residents in the Visayas have not fully recovered and many still live in temporary shelter made of coco lumber, which is not strong enough to protect its residents should another typhoon hit the area.
“With this delay, what will happen if there’s another strong typhoon? These residents will experience a double disaster,” Robredo said.
She said the funds to build houses are available. The problem, she added, is the stringent requirements of the Commission on Audit that prevents houses to be built.
Earlier, she said one of these requirements is a land title. Unfortunately, in many provinces nationwide, only tax declarations are available as proof of landownership.
Getting lands titled takes anywhere from two to three years. This long process, Robredo said, is one of the things which the HUDCC wants to amend to hasten the provision of houses for the homeless, particularly in disaster-stricken areas.
Robredo pegged the housing requirement in Yolanda-affected areas at 205,000 units. But reports received by the HUDCC indicated that only 25,000 were completed and only 2,500 of these are currently occupied.
“I told my office I want to see these 25,000 houses with my own eyes,” Robredo said. “If we need 205,000 houses and only 2,500 are occupied, we are very far from our target.”
Earlier, she said there may be a need to relax land-title requirements to speed up efforts to provide housing units in the Visayas.
In Eastern Samar alone, Robredo said only 200 houses are being constructed of the 900 units needed. Further, even after three years, Robredo said none of the 200 houses have been completed.
The HUDCC chairman said she has tasked the National Housing Authority to provide a matrix of all unfinished housing projects and other problems that need to be addressed in areas affected by Yolanda.
Image credits: File Photo