Groups decry sharp cut in public housing budget

The country’s mass housing developers have deplored a large cut in the national budget for housing and called for reforms in the budgeting system to improve public housing.

The Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP) and the Socialized Housing Alliance Roundtable Endeavor (SHARE) have raised alarm over the meager P2.8 billion allotted for housing in 2019. At its peak, the annual budget reached a high of P37.7 billion in 2014.

For 2019, housing accounted for a measly 0.07 percent of the national budget, which the mass housing associations argued was ironic considering that there is a housing backlog of more than 6.5 million units in the country.

In a joint statement, OSHDP and SHARE lauded the Senate’s Urban Planning, Housing and Resettlement Committee Chair-Designate Senator-elect Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go’s initiatives on a long-term affordable housing program for the needs of the homeless and informal settlers.

The housing developers, however, sought a fresh approach in the budget process to account for the uniqueness of housing projects, specifically in terms of permitting and implementation processes.

“Housing projects should have multiyear continuing appropriations, as projects typically are of long gestation. Permits alone would have to go through 27 offices, 78 permits, 146 signatures, and a total of 373 documents. As there might be a need to revise or amend existing laws, OSHDP and SHARE welcome the designation of Sen. Go, who wants to hit the ground running,” OSHDP president Jefferson Bongat said.

Secondly, OSHDP and SHARE called on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to provide additional funding to the new Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD). The implementing rules and regulations for this recently created department are now being finalized.

As currently crafted, the proposed budget is a combination of the 2019 budget of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board.

However, SHARE president Marcelino Mendoza lamented: “Overlooked is the fact that the new law mandates the performance of new and major functions to include the identification, conversion and management of idle government lands for housing, creation of one-stop processing centers, and planning for housing of disaster-prone areas, all of which require huge new appropriations.”

“The creation of DHSUD involves a paradigm shift in the approach to public housing as a solution to the housing backlog. It would place priority on construction of medium- and high-rise buildings using centrally located government lands, so beneficiaries in the inner city would be better served. Singapore is the best model for this, and the government must provide the necessary funding requirements,” Mendoza added.