Legislator says housing budget of P50B needed to address shortages

A MEMBER of a House of Representatives committee said she will propose an increase in the housing budget to at least P50 billion next year, following the panel’s approval of a resolution declaring a housing crisis.

In a statement Thursday, the House Committee on Housing and Urban Development said it will also collaborate with the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development and the National Housing Authority (NHA) to achieve a goal of building 6.7 million housing units.

San Jose Del Monte City Representative Florida P. Robes said the committee “will move to increase the budget for socialized housing to at least P50 billion starting next year and increase it every year thereafter to enable the government to address the issue.”

On Wednesday, the panel adopted House Substitute Resolution No. 1458 declaring a housing crisis in the Philippines. The resolution said only about 800,000 housing units were constructed between 2016 and 2020, against a projected demand for over six million units by 2022.

The government allocated an average of 0.74% of the national budget for socialized housing between 2010 and 2021.

The House committee plans to fast-track 18 pending measures meant to ease the housing crisis.

Ms. Robes heads the technical working group created by the House Resolution.

“This is an ambitious goal I know because it is not easy especially now that we have the pandemic but we have housing officials who are passionate about their work and are very much willing to work together to fulfill their mandate of providing decent and affordable housing to all underserved Filipino families,” she said. — Gillian M. Cortez