Antonio V. Osmeña
Estatements
HOUSING problems, no doubt, differ in magnitude and intensity in various regions, areas and communities in our country.
But, no matter where one looks, the problem can be traced to one or more of: 1) the existence of neighborhood blight and slums and their effect on community housing, health, and safety; 2) inability of low income family groups to secure adequate and decent housing facilities, and; 3) lack of organized home financing, facilities, policies and practices for the urban poor.
Today, a significant further shift in population is under way from the rural areas to urban areas as households seek for better economic gain. This condition of “flux” in urban population is responsible for most of the more serious housing problems which Metro Cebu cities have been unable to solve.
The present global economic meltdown is due to the collapse of the subprime mortgage sector in the United States that began when many families—whose credit track record were considered risky—were enticed to avail themselves of “easy” home purchase plan. In the end, many of these families lost their home to foreclosure proceedings.
Too often it is not the initial cost but the “upkeep” that causes the amenities or pleasures of home ownership to end in
financial grief.
Unfortunately, there are special groups or interests that stand to benefit from these unsuspecting homeowners, and their active advertising appears to support the impression that the homeowner can “have his cake and eat it, too.”
Yes, home ownership has merits, but it would constitute grave folly to urge it on each and all – although the means are available – unless the principles of home ownership can reasonably be applied.
There is now a need for urban centers in Metro Cebu to create an Urban Renewal Service, whose initial role is to obtain technical and other professional aid for the preparation of local slum clearance programs. This body should also legislate and appropriate a sum of money for developing, testing and reporting of slum prevention and slum elimination techniques.
To this end, it is necessary for a local community to create a housing authority that can obtain grants up to two-thirds of cost, provided these studies will be valuable in solving urban renewal problems. Thus, the local housing authority shall provide 100 percent insurance on mortgages for low-cost housing to families displaced from urban renewal areas.
There is also an urgent need for the Home Guarantee Corp. (HGC) to prioritize its involvement in establishing an “enabling” legislation for a private corporation to acquire land in slums—with the power of eminent domain—and put up a 100 percent insurance from HGC against mortgage failure.
The local housing authority would then have slum areas cleared and improved with modern, but simple, apartment buildings to house the displaced as well as low-income groups.
Under such legislation, the local housing authority would exercise control over rentals, design, density, location and the method of selecting tenants.
To guard against occupancy by unqualified persons, the following criteria should be imposed: 1) a family must not earn in excess of the maximum income set locally; 2) the authorities must make a written report to be published in local newspaper showing that incomes of families admitted are within the limit; 3) the authorities must re-examine the income of all tenant families periodically (“tenants” refer to families who cannot afford to own the unit but prefer to rent the premises instead), to adjust rents if necessary and to evict those families whose incomes have risen above the limit.
The local housing authority should be criminally liable if there is flagrant abuse of the law, evidence of affluence among public housing tenants/owners, political suberfuge, use of public facilities for private gain, and if there are instances of subsidy to the kind of people who are deemed least deserving as public beneficiaries.
Perhaps the most controversial issue is one that concerns low-rent public housing (apartment style units). For this form of amenity, the housing is erected with public funds, owned and operated by government or an instrumentality of government, such as a municipal housing authority.
The entrepreneurial leadership of Cebu’s business leaders, specifically the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, should be able to come up with the necessary financial grants for the local housing authority to operate.
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