Mass housing developers express support to housing rental subsidy

Informal settler families stand to gain easier access to affordable housing with the provision of housing rental subsidy to these underserved housing stakeholders, says the Organization of Socialized and Economic Housing Developers of the Philippines (OSHDP).

In a press statement, National President Gino Olivares said OSHDP fully supports House Bill No. 8736, which the House of Representatives is pushing for enactment and has recently passed on second reading.

This is also among the 6-point shelter agenda of the organization, aimed at making housing more accessible to the homeless and underprivileged, Olivares pointed out.

“The realities of rising housing materials, land, and production costs, among other things, have served to widen the housing affordability gap among low-income families,” he noted.

OSHDP Chairman Marcelino Mendoza emphasized that “rental is the recommended mode of housing for the bottom 30% of income population, as this mode does not require the lessee to pay the land component, and matches his affordability level. This is his starter home, and later on he can transfer to purchase mode as his income increases.”

That is why OSHDP supports the advocacies also for public rental housing, and grant of
housing vouchers to housing beneficiaries, as provided for under Republic Act No. 11201, which creates the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development.

Corollary to this, OSHDP is also advocating to redefine socialized housing by recognizing other multi-modal government programs including alternative rights-based financing, rental and public housing.

“The organization likewise pushes for the immediate review of the socialized housing price ceilings to further enable the private sector to ramp up its production efforts, which rely heavily on developers’ own funds,” Olivares concluded.