Housing assistance for LGUS

In NHA menu of assistance

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 16 (PIA) – Coping with problems of squatters, constituents, who are forced to build in exclusive no-build zones or in disaster prone areas, because that is the only lot they have?

Local government units (LGUs) with similar issues may have a way out of this snag, in fact, reveals National Housing Authority (NHA) Bohol Field Officer Genesis Ceasar Manalili, during the recent Kapihan sa PIA.

Tasked with producing better and more affordable quality housing for the country, NHA looks at calamity stricken areas and building houses for those who lost their houses in natural and human-caused disasters, and respond to those needs of LGUs for community resettlement especially those threatened by risk associated with calamities.

Through Resettlement Assistance Program for LGUS, (RAPLGU), NHA can provide as much as P25M for municipalities and P50M for cities who are into resettling informal settler family constituents to protect them from the risks of disasters, calamities and to allow the implementation of local development plans for the public good, Manalili explained.

The NHA could finance land acquisition, land development and housing project, but with the limited resources, it has now tapped LGUS who can provide the land upon which NHA can build, so the government can stretch its resources and serve more, he added.

In Bohol, for example, the NHA is currently working to set up the resettlement of residences exposed to the risk of storm surges, unusually high tides and the expansion of the Maribojoc port.

In partnership with LGU Maribojoc, the local housing board and the NHA, they are building a 148 unit duplex housing units on 60 square-meter lots for 32 square meter floor houses.

These houses have a total floor area of 32.5 square meters, in a community with provisions for a multipurpose hall, materials recovery facility, individualized septic tanks, tricycle terminal, fire hydrants, 10 meter wide main roads and 6.5 meter wide side roads, for assured ease of access, he shared at the Kapihan.

Now, how is that?

He said, in partnership with the LGU, Maribojoc put up its own Housing Board who decides and deals with NHA.

In the town’s own property in Anislag, the LGU and the Housing Board has designated the place for three phases of construction work for 148 unit duplex houses.

Usually, the NHA offers free housing, but with the partnership with the LGU, the Board decided that they would collect a monthly amortization to fill in a trust fund for the additional town’s housing projects.

Here, member beneficiaries can also opt to use their housing unit financing entity,

Other than the RAP LGU, NHA has also a Calamity Housing Program, he continued.

In Bohol, communities in the islands of Tubigon threatened by the rising tides brought about by climate change are getting this kind of assistance, Manalili said.

With the devastation brought about by typhoon Odette, the GLUS of Pilar and Sierra Bullones partnered with the NHA in the provision of housing assistance and the NHA is set to implement housing projects in Lundag Pilar and Cantaub in Sierra Bullones for the indigenous people.

And, he added, the NHA has also another housing program for indigenous communities, one that we are implementing in Taytay Duero, with the help of the LGU.

On the other hand, NHA is also into Emergency Housing Assistance Program (EHAP) for marginal income homeowners affected by natural calamities.

In Bohol, with Odette, the government has ruled 84,000 Boholanos eligible for the P10,000 immediate assistance, where the EHAP allocation could go from 30,000 to P5,000, depending on the situation of the family benelificary and the house damage.

LGUS interested to tap the NHA for their housing problems can visit the office along Benigno Aquino Avenue, near airport Road, for more information, NHA said. (PIABohol)

FIRST 28 HOUSES. NHA turned over 28 houses to resettled port of Maribojoc residents affected by the expansion of the port and the threat of storm surges and unusually high tides. The LGU purchased the lot which the NHA develops and funds the building of the houses, to which beneficiaries pay a monthly amortization of P300 to be collected by the Housing Board as roll-over funds for additional LGU housing projects. (PIAbohol)

INFORMAL SETTLE FAMILIES RELOCATION? NO PROBLEM. Genesis Ceasar Manalili, Bohol NHA Field Officer said the NHA can help LGUS in their housing resettlement programs especially those threatened by effects of disasters. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)