The House Committee on Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday adopted a substitute resolution declaring a housing crisis in the Philippines as the total housing needs are expected to balloon to 6.7 million units by 2022.
Negros Occidental Rep. Francisco Benitez, panel chairman and one of the authors of the resolution, said the measure also urged housing agencies to streamline and speed up their housing production, including the dissemination of housing units to underserved families.
Benitez said the government estimates that the country needs 6,796,910 housing units by 2022, and the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters as well as adverse impact of climate change also threaten to displace families living in danger zones.
According to the lawmaker, most challenges in the sector are caused by inefficiencies and bureaucratic red tape which typically involves 27 offices, 78 permits, 146 signatures, and 373 documents and which takes two to four years to be able to begin a socialized housing project.
As the housing industry is paralyzed by increasing costs and risks, the lawmaker said the government must intervene to provide adequate housing to underserved market segments.
For her part, House Committee on People’s Participation chairperson and San Jose Del Monte City Rep. Florida Robes, who crafted the substitute resolution, said population growth, urban-rural migration and increasing cost of urban land led to a rise in the number of informal settlements in cities despite enactment of various laws on housing production, which include regulation and finance.
Earlier, Robes said the City of San Jose Del Monte, Province of Bulacan hosts at least 40 relocation projects constructed by the national government through the National Housing Authority, as well as more than 150 residential subdivisions.
According to the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, there are 1.8 million informal settler families in the country, with almost 500,000 informal settler families in the National Capital Region.
But from July 2016 to June 2020, the lawmakers said the government and the private sectors only constructed 777,879 units.
“Historically, the government allocates very limited funding for housing under General Appropriations Act from 2010 to 2021 with an average of 0.74 percent of the national budget,” the lawmakers said in the resolution.