DWUP eyes city condo for housing program

CEBU, Philippines - The Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor is eyeing the city-owned and operated condominium for a comprehensive housing program to be availed by those who will be affected by clearing operations in the danger areas.

DWUP Chief Collin Rossell said his office has started thinking of ways on how the condominium may be used again as a housing site considering that the city lacks relocation sites for homeless Cebu City residents.

Rossell said that since people prefer their housing sites in the urban areas, medium-rise buildings are ideal due to limited available space.

One of the proposals was to house qualified urban poor beneficiaries in the five-storey condominium for free for three years until such time that they will be ready to find a decent place to live in.

Rossell said the units will be leased for free for three years but during those times, they will undergo training or an entrepreneurship program to help them get a job or any source of livelihood that will enable them to be independent after the grace period.

He said the beneficiaries will be chosen according to their socio-economic classification which will be determined by DWUP.

Rossell said this is only one of the many proposals they are considering to further enhance the housing program of the city.

But to use the condominium, the DWUP will have to ask the students from the mountain barangays to vacate the place.

Some 600 students from the mountain barangays rent the condominium as a boarding house at a very low cost.

The city government converted it into a boarding house because it had not been used for its original purpose for many years since it was constructed in 1996 costing the government some P28 million.

Rossell plans to review the history of the condominium, how it was used before as well as the recovery scheme of the budget used to fund its construction among others.

He said that since the city is embarking on medium-rise buildings for housing projects, he wants to learn from the first medium-rise housing facility of the city which failed in the past.  (FREEMAN)