AS THE city enjoys massive developments, the need for decent housing is also increasing because of apparent growing population, thus the city government is taking a huge stride to address the backlog to provide adequate and decent housing to every Dabawenyo.
The need for housing continues to be the top challenge for the government and so, the government has crafted plans to curb the problem. Earlier this year, Councilor Rene Elias Lopez, the chairperson for housing, rural and urban development said that they will review the local shelter plan of the city.
Based on data from research division of the City Planning Development Office (CPDO), the estimated informal settlers Davao City as of 2015 have grown bigger to about 59,000 which will require 223 hectares land area.
“This plan will detail how many houses do we need, where shall we place it, how much land must be purchase, what are the things to do, how much money do we need to make sure that we will be able to provide each and every Dabawenyo that they will be given adequate decent housing,” Lopez said.
The local housing board has review the local shelter plan of Davao City to address the plight of informal settlers as well as to address the housing backlog now at 59,388, in order to provide Dabawenyos a decent, affordable and disaster-resilient housing.
To address the housing backlog, he said that the initial estimate budget for the realization of this is about P40 billion and the City Government is eyeing a certain location with 100,000 hectares for the backlog housing needs. However, the city continues to look for available to be the relocation sites.
He said that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio has been pushing to the local housing board to employ the Shelter Code of Davao City which was enacted in 2007 to better address the issue and the housing needs of Dabawenyos.
“It is the job of the government to provide adequate and decent housing to every Dabawenyo and that was the gist of the ordinance which was passed in 2007,” he said.
He cited that one of the provisions of that ordinance is the creation and implementation of the local shelter plan in order to relocate those informal settlers dwelling in government lands, informal settlers in private lands, those who are about to be evicted and living in danger zone.