THE chairman of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development over the weekend urged the government to create a program that seeks to implement a long-term housing rental for homeless Filipinos.
Liberal Party Rep. Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental, chairman of the panel, in a recent interview with reporters, said that a long-term pubic-rental scheme is needed to address the country’s housing backlog, which he earlier estimated at 6 million units.
“We, in the House Committee on Housing and our counterpart in the Senate, are pushing for a solution to address the perennial problem in the housing industry, which is the backlog because of the lack of affordable housing. A Filipino cannot afford a housing unit because it’s too prohibitive,” he said.
The legislator added that affordable housing provides a more cost-effective solution to address homelessness in the Philippines.
“We should find ways to make the industry move forward. The only way to make it is through government intervention or on a massive scale that creates a public-rental scheme,” Benitez said.
Benitez said there are many available government lots for the authorities to create housing units for homeless Filipinos.
“The concept of this long-term public rental is after 10 to 20 years of renting [of only P200 and 500 a month in a government land and facility], a Filipino, who at the given time already has a better job and financially stable, can now afford to buy his own house,” he said.
“Affordable housing is the most important part of a country’s housing system. Lack of affordable housing can make it hard to achieve other household needs, such as health, education and employment,” Benitez added.
Meanwhile, Benitez said that a housing summit, which is expected to be attended by different stakeholders, will be conducted soon to address the country’s housing problems.
The lawmaker, however, said that his committee could not set a schedule for the summit without a recommendation from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to the World Bank.
“The summit needs funding, and the World Bank is willing to underwrite the funding requirement on the condition, we have recommendation letter from the DBM saying we are endorsing this housing summit. We only need one paper [from the DBM] to address our perennial housing problem,” he said.
Benitez said the summit aims to tackle different housing issues, such as affordable rental, housing backlog and informal settlers.
Also, he said creation of a national housing planning program will be one of the topics during the summit. Earlier, the lawmaker said that the country’s shelter needs will continue to increase if a national housing planning program will not be implemented.
He said collaboration among the public and private sectors are also important to address the issues of housing in the country.