DHSUD to work closely with private developers

THE Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development (DHSUD) is ready to cooperate with housing developers to provide solutions for the housing backlogs in the country.

«I am asking for your help on what we could talk about and partner with you in order to help the administration. We are ready to face and cooperate, [and] we are open for your suggestions and opinions,» DHSUD Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar said at the 4th Affordable Housing Summit of the Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines Inc. (OSHDP) on Friday.

Acuzar said that if the government and the private developers will not cooperate, the problem in housing will never be solved.

«If they (housing developers) build [housing], we will buy what they have built. Our ideal was to complete the program for the poor within the Marcos administration,» he said.

The department's Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino (4PH) Program is aligned with the socioeconomic agenda of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s administration and his vision for organized and well-planned settlements in the country.

In the summit's fireside session, some of the stakeholders gave their take on rental housing to make it more affordable for the beneficiaries.

«One of the challenges for the 4PH program is about [the] affordability. There were members of the informal settler families that wouldn't be covered because they are in our lower threshold,» said Leo Ocampo, legal department manager of the Social Housing Finance Corp.

Ocampo said, however, they have a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Human Settlements to make sure that the lower-income families should have a different program.

The OSHDP proposed that instead of the 15 percent escrow of the whole project, this should be used to build a house or a unit, and that cost will not be recovered or it will be awarded to the local government unit, and the cost of that unit would be multiplied by five and counted as compliance.

OSHDP Director Billy de Leon told The Manila Times that «if you're building a P100-million project, you have to escrow or put up 15 percent, or 15 million for you to recover.»

«So our proposal is, the