BAGUIO CITY – The chairman of the City Council Committee on Urban Planning, Land and Housing underscored that the construction of medium rise tenements in strategic areas in the city will contribute in efforts of the local government to effectively and efficiently address the increasing housing requirements of the growing population aside from curbing the problem in the proliferation of informal settlers.
Councilor Edgar M. Avila, committee chairman, said that the only way to go for the local government to be able to address the rapidly increasing demand for housing is to work out the put up of medium rise housing structures with partner housing agencies so that there will be sufficient units that will be made available to the people who are interested to avail of the housing program.
The alderman said that the housing demand in the city is enormous because of the limited land area that is classified to be alienable and disposable that is why the local government is doing its best to find lasting solutions to the housing problem as people continue to flock to the city for them to be assured of sustainable sources of income that will help in uplifting the living condition of their families.
Earlier, the local legislative body approved the multi-year local shelter program that outlines the programs, projects, activities and strategies of the local government that will effectively and efficiently address the housing needs of the growing population.
According to him, his committee was able to facilitate the award of some 1,300 alienable and disposable lands in the different parts of the city to qualified homelot applicants apart from having facilitated the processing of patents over some lands for the benefit of the applicants.
He claimed that the medium rise tenements that will be offered to interested residents wanting to own shelters in the city will be coursed through the different housing agencies considering that the same will not be free.
The local legislator revealed that the put up of the medium rise tenements that will be offered to interested housing unit applicants could be built through the partnership of the local government and the different housing agencies and that the applicants will be obliged to pay the housing agencies through the terms that will be set by the agencies on the matter.
People from the remote villages of the country tend to flock to the urban centers like Baguio City because it is where they could find decent sources of income and sustainable sources of livelihood that will contribute in their efforts to significantly improve the living condition of their families.
He encouraged residents wanting to own their own shelters in the city to register with his office considering that one of the current programs of the committee is to have a master list of those people who need housing so that it will serve as a reference for concerned housing agencies and the city to ascertain the beneficiaries of the different housing projects that will be established in the different parts of the city in the future.
Avila emphasized that housing is one of the basic needs of people which must be provided through the assistance of concerned housing agencies and the local government but the same will not be totally free considering that beneficiaries also have the necessary obligations.
By Dexter A. See