Mandaue City moves to reduce number of homeless families

The Mandaue City government has enrolled 15 urban poor associations in the community mortgage program of the National Home Mortgage and Finance Corporation, as it moved to reduce substantially the number of homeless families in the city.

Mayor Thadeo Ouano said that secured tenure is one of his priority concerns and he would like to see the number of homeless families reduced, as he announced also that the city is currently preparing the documentation of 20 more urban poor groups for enrollment in the CMP.

The NHMFC is a major government home mortgage agency, the main function of which is to run a viable home mortgage market, using funds from the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, and Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund, for housing purposes.

There are at present about 17,114 households in the city living below the poverty line and about 10,000 of these are deemed homeless.

Ouano said the city government is currently serving the needs of about 2,000 households while it keeps on formulating other options to address the housing needs of a lot more.

The city government, represented by Ouano, had just signed a memorandum of agreement with Gawad Kalinga Development Foundation for the construction of 200 houses in one of the city's CMP sites.

The city had also collaborated with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Incorporated, the World Bank, and the Japan Social Development Fund for the upgrading of roads, drainage and other facilities in the Canduman New Resettlement Project, which had benefited about 630 households.

Ouano further said the issuance of a presidential proclamation is being awaited for the turn over to the city of the 11.8-hectare land inside the Eversly Child Sanitarium for its eventual site upgrading to benefit at least 1,000 informal households in the city.

Ouano said the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council has been reviewing the draft presidential proclamation before President Gloria Arroyo signs it for implementation.

In the case of the medium-rise housing project at Paradise Island in barangay Looc, the project evaluation committee of the National Housing Authority has already reviewed and approved it and its informal settlers. It is now subject to final review by the technical working group.

Ouano added that the bidding process for the construction of that P100-million medium-rise housing project will start this week. - Mitchelle P. Calipayan