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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider House panel urges Lower Chamber to declare housing crisis to stir gov't action

House panel urges Lower Chamber to declare housing crisis to stir gov't action

Published May 2, 2021 05:17 pm

Members of the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development are confident the House of Representatives will adopt its resolution declaring a housing crisis in the country.

Reps. Jose Francisco “Kiko” Benitez (NPC, Negros Occidental) and Florida Robes (NUP, San Jose del Monte City), committee chairman and vice chairperson, respectively, moved strongly for the panel approval of House Resolution 1677.

Endorsement of adoption of the measure was calendared a few days after the conduct of a housing summit that Robes hosted at the SJDM Convention Center on March 10.

Robes said that a declaration of a house crisis will prod the executive department to mobilize resources to accelerate housing production and provide adequate housing to underserved families.

Authored by Benitez and several other lawmakers, HR 1677 authorizes the Lower House to call on the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and other concerned agencies to immediately undertake an inventory of idle government lands and fastrack the development and disposition of said properties for socialized housing.

Benitez said the private sector’s partnership will be sought in this endeavor.

He said population growth, rural-to-urban migration and the increasing cost of urban land have resulted in the increase in number of informal settlements in cities “where housing conditions are generally poor and families are exposed to health or natural hazards, or hostile and unsafe conditions.” Citing DHSUD estimates, Benitez said there are 1,898,993 informal settler families in the country. Of this number, 478,899 families have settled in the National Capital Region.

Underscoring the need to address a housing crisis in the country, Robes noted that government had estimated that the country’s total housing requirement by 2022 will be 6,797,910 units to be able to shelter the growing population.

Other authors of the measure lamented that addressing the housing needs has become a major concern.

They disclosed that from July 2016 and June 2020, government and the private sector were only able to construct 777,879 housing units.

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