DMCI Homes & Habitat for Humanity build homes for public school teachers

MANILA, Philippines - DMCI Homes signed a memorandum of agreement with Habitat for Humanity Philippines (HFHP) to provide housing units to sectors with livelihood but are unable to afford to buy shelter for their families. A cash donation of close to P4 million was made by DMCI Homes to help fund the construction of Bistek Ville 1 that will accommodate over 100 beneficiary families in Payatas, Quezon City.

One part of the community will be reserved for public school teachers, and in another area within the village, informal settlers will be offered rent-to-own units.

According to DMCI Homes president Alfredo Austria, “We all know that there’s a housing backlog in different classes of society, that there are people who need housing. We’ve always been interested in providing homes and this is another area where we can help.”

Given the limited land available in Metro Manila whether for commercial or socialized housing, the direction is toward developing condominium-type communities. Charlie Ayco, managing director and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Philippines, said that they have previously constructed medium-rise residential buildings in Taguig and Pasig, and the organization looks forward to building more that will provide in-city relocation for people living in danger zones to keep them close to their sources of income.   

Ayco admits that volunteers, the lifeblood of Habitat’s projects, are much easier to involve in building row houses than condo-type housing. “When you go into medium-rises, it’s much more challenging to work with volunteers.”

In multi-storey structures, people who enlisted to help can only be assigned certain types of tasks (such as making hollow blocks), and only when the structure is already up can the volunteers safely continue. “We have to work with very experienced contractors, and plan on how to maximize and be very efficient” in the design and construction of the buildings.

The project is hoped to initiate an exchange of best practices, insights, and technical expertise in dealing with the housing problem, particularly in the area of multi-family buildings, which is DMCI Homes and its affiliates’ domain of expertise. “If we look at DMCI, they’re very experienced in construction. They have engineers, architects… One area where they can help us aside from the cash contribution would be technical assistance, later on,” Ayco explained.

 It’s definitely a task for more than one pair of hands. “It’s only by their participation that we can serve more,” said Ayco. “By bringing in the private sector, and understanding what their limitations are and addressing them, we bring together the strengths of both organizations.”