Informal settlers under CMP get financial aid

To ensure faster delivery of housing solutions to the poor, state run Social Housing Finance Corp. will provide subsidies for technical assistance and housing repairs to beneficiaries of its Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

This was based on CMP Corporate Circular 17-049, which was released last May 25.

The subsidy—which is equivalent to five percent of the total project cost for the technical support activities—can be used by the beneficiaries in preparing and complying with the documentary requirements for the loan application process.

Pro-poor solutions

SHFC executive vice president Eduardo Manicio said in a statement that this was in line with the agency’s thrust of introducing and innovating pro-poor housing solutions.

“Through the subsidy, SHFC can financially unburden informal settler families and can help scale up and accelerate housing delivery to the poor,” he said.

The technical support subsidy can cover costs of all documentary requirements and alternative compliance that will be obtained from various government agencies and local government units, needed by a community association (CA) for housing project application, professional fees used in the technical plan, taxes and costs for transfer of land titles, registration fees, and permits related to land acquisition, site development, house construction, and occupancy of the houses under usufruct arrangement.

For calamities, disasters

In the event of calamities or disasters, SHFC will provide a maximum amount of P5,000 per beneficiary, in the form of cash or building materials to cover immediate housing repair needs of existing CMP projects.

Aside from providing subsidy, SHFC introduced alternative modes of payment to ensure security of tenure, inclusivity, and community empowerment. These include usufruct arrangement, which permits free use of land for a certain period to enable site development and house construction.

Last year, SHFC has assisted 23,202 informal settler families to attain security of land tenure and released total loans worth P4.853 billion.