Housing agency has met SONA targets - Defensor

Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairman Mike Defensor debunked yesterday reports that the housing sector has not met President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address targets, saying that the agency "accomplished 95 percent of its total SONA target of providing tenurial security to 300,000 families as of end-May this year."

In her first SONA in July last year, Mrs. Arroyo broke down the overall target of providing shelter and secure tenure to 300,000 families as follows; 150,000 urban poor, 50,000 poorest of the poor and 100,000 workers and members of the formal sector or members of pension funds.

Defensor said that a total of 283,842 families nationwide have so far benefited from the government’s mass housing program.

"As of June 2002, we have already provided secure tenure to 174,950 households out of the targeted 150,000 urban poor households under our asset reform program," he said.

The program, which involves the issuance of various presidential proclamations declaring certain public lands disposable for housing purposes, also adopts the De Soto principle "recognizing that the poor can also be wealth generators."

Meanwhile, the housing chief said of the targeted 50,000 poorest of the poor (Higit sa Maralita), more than 49,000 families have been provided service home lots through the slum upgrading, sites and services, land tenurial and resettlement programs of the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. (NHMFC).

Defensor admitted, however, that there is "really need for funding agencies such as SSS, GSIS, DBP and LBP to work double time to increase availment of their home lending programs for low salaried workers."

Despite this, the housing sector achieved a more than respectable 74 percent accomplishment in providing low cost housing for workers equivalent to close to 60,000 families.

"We cannot be complacent … we are determined to do everything to meet our yearly housing backlog of more than four million," Defensor said.