[OPINION] Housing the urban poor: Marcos’ chance to get it right

With so many controversial political and urgent economic and social issues that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has to speak about in his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), it is somewhat surprising that housing made the list. “Abot-kayang pabahay” (affordable housing) under the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing (4PH) Program, he said, is among the investments that Filipino workers can make for their retirement, thanks to the “social protection floor” policy of the administration. The private sector and local governments were mentioned as partners in filling the housing shortage, which he claimed has shrunk by more than 100,000 units in the past year alone. Building that many units is one thing; ensuring these reach the urban poor is another. Most government housing projects under the 4PH Program are located outside the city, making them ideal for buyers who can afford to commute or have cars to drive into the city. These include formally employed Pag-IBIG members and families of OFWs with enough income to invest in a unit. President Marcos did suggest this in his speech. This is not to say that they are without legitimate housing needs. Many of them may currently be living in informal settlements. The problem lies in claiming that the government flagship housing program serves the poor and vulnerable — those facing eviction and demolition threats, making do with substandard housing without basic sanitation and legal utilities, and struggling to make ends meet with their meager wages. While exact statistics on low-income informal settler families (ISFs) remain elusive, their widespread presence throughout our cities is hard to miss. They are a stark reminder that social housing policies and the shelter programs built on them fall drastically short. Here in Metro Manila, they are in the sprawling coastline of Baseco Compound in Manila and the densely populated National Government Center in Quezon City. They are found along railroad tracks such as the PNR’s Southrail in Muntinlupa and next to busy highways such as R-10 in Navotas. They are forced to live beneath high-voltage power lines in Valenzuela and next to stagnant esteros of Pasay. They occupy idle private properties held by speculative owners waiting for property values to rise. Off-city resettlement For families in flood-prone areas and infrastructure right-of-ways, the government’s primary response is relocation through the resettlement program of the National Housing Authority (NHA). Displaced kilometers away from their original communities where work is accessible and forced to endure months (even years) without reliable water or electricity, these relocated families constitute a particularly marginalized segment of the urban poor. In the city, children could simply walk to their schools; in resettlement sites, students have to commute, placing an additional financial burden on already economically precarious households. It is no wonder then that many “awardees” leave their units and go back to the city to squat again. Yet, official metrics for measuring how well it has responded to the housing problem — which get reported during the SONA — do not account for the number of families actually living in, or even able to remain in, these units. It’s a vicious cycle the government continues to ignore. President Marcos Jr cited the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) as one strategy for reducing the housing backlog. He did not elaborate on this, but this is an encouraging sign, especially since this innovative program has largely fallen dormant since the Duterte administration. CMP is driven by the beneficiaries themselves. Informal settlers, with the help of an NGO, organize into a community association to collectively negotiate for land purchase, decide on site developments, and secure loan and manage repayment. CMP provides financing designed specifically for the informal poor— featuring low interest rates, flexible terms, and affordable amortization. In recent years, however, the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), the shelter agency overseeing the CMP, has shifted focus toward partnering with private developers on off-site housing projects rather than enabling communities to access loans for on-site development. If the Marcos Jr administration is serious about using the CMP as an approach to resolve the housing crisis, it must exercise its regulatory and political influence to urge private landowners to part with their property in favor of the urban poor. As mentioned earlier, many prefer retaining their properties, anticipating higher market values in the future. In the fierce competition over high-value urban land, the government must stand resolutely with the poor. It must also clamp down on land-grabbing by wealthy families and well-connected land developers. Land proclamations During the Arroyo administration, several government-owned lands occupied by informal settlers were designated as socialized housing sites via executive proclamations. It was an apparent political strategy aimed at placating the urban poor, a base historically loyal to Joseph Estrada, her predecessor. Many of these proclaimed sites were never actually awarded to beneficiaries, leaving families without land titles and communities to languish in poverty and with little basic services. Despite being overlooked in the SONA, presidential land proclamations offer the administration a tangible way to prove its commitment to delivering secure land tenure and decent housing to the urban poor. This approach is a low-cost alternative to off-city resettlement. The government will not have to pour funds into new houses, roads, schools, and hospitals at distant relocation sites, freeing up land for other productive uses. In these proclaimed sites, households can be provided with affordable financing to upgrade or retrofit their homes to meet building safety standards. There is no denying that President Marcos Jr must deliver strong results over the next two years, particularly given his lagging trust and satisfaction ratings. Prioritizing housing for the urban poor gives him a clear opportunity to establish a lasting policy legacy. The true measure of the administration’s housing policy will not be the number of housing units built, or the number of land titles awarded to buyers, but whether the poorest urban families can live with dignity in the communities they call home. – Rappler.com Gerald Nicolas is with the Urban Poverty and Governance Program of the John J Carroll Institute on Church and Social Issues (ICSI), an advocacy-oriented research institute based at the Ateneo de Manila University and a member of the Society of Jesus Social Apostolate (SJSA). How does this make you feel? Loading