DHSUD: 2020 a banner year amid ‘birth pains’

The Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) said on Tuesday 2020 was a banner year despite some “birth pains” and challenges posed by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

Eduardo del Rosario. PHOTO

In a yearend report, Human Settlements Secretary Eduardo del Rosario voiced satisfaction with his department’s performance during its first year of full operations.

“Despite some birth pains and Covid-19, the department managed to pursue its mandate of providing decent and affordable housing for the underprivileged, especially informal-settler families,” he was quoted as saying in the report.

This comes after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act (RA) 11201, which created the DHSUD, on Feb. 14, 2019. Del Rosario is its first secretary.

The department said it had started laying the foundations for the future of the housing sector by reviewing and amending housing policies, guidelines, and procedures.

New policies and regulations governing the real estate industry and homeowners’ associations, in close coordination with partner-developers, were also crafted and issued, it added.

It is also finalizing the 20-year National Housing and Urban Development Sector Plan, aimed at synchronizing and focusing all efforts to sustain the housing industry’s vibrancy.

According to the DHSUD, it produced and financed 113,412 housing units from January to December 19 through its four key shelter agencies (KSAs).

Of the figure, the National Housing Authority accounted for 24,139 units; the Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), 75,582; and the Social Housing Finance Corp., 13,256. The fourth, the National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., took out 435 units of housing-loan receivables from its partner-developers.

“More than just producing and financing housing units, [the] DHSUD took pro-active measures to assist the general public, particularly the underprivileged, to cope with the adverse effects of the extended community quarantines sparked by [the] Covid-19 pandemic,” the department said.

After the government imposed an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) on Luzon in mid-
March, del Rosario ordered a three-month moratorium on monthly amortizations on housing and other loan payments from its KSAs in compliance with RA 11469, or the “Bayanihan to Heal as One Act” (Bayanihan 1).

The department also imposed another 60-day moratorium under RA 11494, or the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act” (Bayanihan 2).

Both measures benefited some 5.5 million people, most of whom are Pag-IBIG Fund members.

During the ECQ, the DHSUD said, it had asked private developers to offer a grace period for home buyers under their in-house financing program.

It also issued guidelines on moving deadlines and interruptions of periods for compliance with requirements. An advisory on implementing rules and regulations aimed at providing a uniform procedure on granting an additional period to projects whose completion was delayed or affected by the pandemic was also issued.

“Secretary del Rosario also found ways to assist private developers [to] cope with the pandemic with the expansion of [the] Pag-IBIG Fund’s Housing Construction Finance Loan facility from P2 to P10 billion,” the DHSUD said, which “was meant to sustain the construction works of small companies that had been affected by the pandemic.”

Source: ManilaTimes