BAGUIO CITY, Jan.7 (PIA) – – Majority of the municipalities in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) have completed their Local Shelter Plan (LSP), a roadmap to address local government housing requirement.
The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) extended assistance in the completion of 65 LSPs of the 77 municipalities in CAR for 2016-2024, according to HUDCC Director for Regions 1, 2 and CAR Michellene Inay during a recent meeting of the Regional Development Council -Sectoral Committee on Social Development (RDC-RSDC).
The LSP lays down a comprehensive perspective of housing situation and allows convergence among concerned government institutions and other interested organizations to work together in providing shelter for those in need.
Inay said through workshops and writeshops, target setting of housing requirement is more or less realistic as it identifies those who are really in need, where are they located, what are their sources of income, and those who cannot afford to build one.
LGUs are encouraged to prioritize families located in danger areas such as top of the hill, landslide areas, along river banks, creeks and other critical locations, said Inay.
With the advent of the Climate Change Adaptation and Disaster Risk Reduction Programs, recent issuances called for the mainstreaming of both to ensure that identification of housing sites are hazard free and safe, she added.
The formulation of LSP is anchored on Local Government Code of 1991, Republic Act 7279 otherwise known as Urban Development and Housing Act and the Philippine Development Plan.
The value added of a established shelter plan according to Inay allows the convergence of resources which in a way will aid LGUs to undertake their housing projects with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) thru their core shelter program, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on road access, Department of Health (DOH) on sanitary facilities such as water sources and sanitary toilets among others.
Meanwhile, RDC Private Sector Representative Marietta Paragas who recently attended the National Social Development Committee Consultative Meeting in Iloilo shared updates on government housing project under the National Urban and Development Framework.
Nationally, there is lack of alienable and disposable (A & D) lands for government housing project. Of the 767,108 hectares delineated where some were already used for other purposes, only 275,679 hectares are A&D.
For the Cordillera region, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-CAR proposed for 119,000 hectares for A & D reclassification but the National Delineation Assessment Committee only approved 24,000 hectares incorporated in the proposed Omnibus Bill filed in Congress, according to Paragas./JDP/SCA-PIA CAR, Benguet
