120,000 low-income families given shelter yearly – De Castro

MANILA, Philippines – The government has provided shelter aid to 120,000 low-income households annually since 2001, Vice President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) Chairman Noli de Castro said.

“I believe that the gains that we have today can be attributed to our determination to work together despite the seemingly insurmountable constraints,” De Castro said at the 2nd Asia Pacific Housing Forum in Makati recently.

Although De Castro admitted that the government does not have enough resources to close the housing gap, he said they were still able to provide shelter aid to poor families by enjoining various sectors to participate in their program.

“The key lies in mobilizing the support of all sectors of Philippine society, including the beneficiaries themselves,” he said.

Such strategies and approaches enabled the administration to reap enough gains in housing, De Castro stressed.

He said the government also sustained efforts to promote capability-building and empowerment of its development partners.

Several programs are already in place, such as the Cities Development Strategies implemented by the League of Cities of the Philippines and supported by Official Development Assistance, the IMPACT or Integrated Approaches to Poverty Reduction at the Neighborhood Level implemented by HUDCC and supported by the Cities Alliance, the Housing Microfinance Initiatives of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Development of Poor Urban Communities Sector project funded by the Asian Development Bank, and the localized CMP. –Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star)