Monday, September 10, 2007 Housing board to give poor more than 3 months to pay
ALTHOUGH it wants a stricter implementation of socialized housing rules, the Cebu City Local Housing Board is also thinking of possibly amending an “unrealistic” provision in the agreements the City entered into with 49 community associations.
City Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) consultant Char-mae Pyl Nercua said the board is seriously discussing how to change the rule where a beneficiary loses his grant if he fails to pay his amortization for at least three months.
“But there should be consultations with the urban poor on how many unpaid months should be reckoned with because three months is unrealistic. In the existing MOAs, three months of unpaid amortization supposedly means automatic cancellation of grants,” she said.
Depending on the me-morandum of agreement (MOA) a community association has with the City, each of the over 40,000 beneficiaries pays P300 to P600 a month in amortization for 10 to 25 years.
Undeveloped
The City Government has 190,000 square meters of undeveloped land, which were bought sometime in 1997 to 2000, in hilly areas in five barangays.
Seven relocation sites bought for around P100 million, though, were considered “unlivable,” or forested, rocky or with a slope of at least 30-degree inclination.
There were suggestions for DWUP to hook up with private firms or with real estate firms for either the development or the sale of the said areas to recoup the amount.
Unoccupied properties are one of the three reasons the DWUP cited why the City Government has not fully recovered the P428.4 million it invested in urban poor housing.
This is also the reason DWUP has a low collection efficiency, having collected just P72 million of the total amount.
Some P356.5 million has yet to be recovered.
Benefited
The DWUP has registered 58,712 urban poor families as beneficiaries of housing programs but only 67 percent or 40,237 families have benefited from the program.
Nercua said there are currently 39 associations with active MOAs with the City that benefited from the City Housing Acquisition of Privately-owned Lots and resettlement sites acquisition program.
And 10 more groups enjoying the City-owned relocation site program likewise have existing MOAs with the city.
For 29 community associations which still have to sign an agreement with the City, they have six months to do so.
At least 37 more with expired contracts also have to renew their respective agreements with the City within that period.
Otherwise, they will have their rights forfeited or their amortization raised by 25 percent.
Nercua said the City this time means business in collecting housing dues. Just recently, the housing board canceled the grant of 57 Barangay Apas beneficiaries. (RHM)
