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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Wednesday, May 17, 2017
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ILOILO City – Seven erring beneficiaries of the city government’s socialized housing program were stripped of their housing units.
These houses were in the relocation site in Barangay Lanit, Jaro district, according to the Iloilo City Urban Poor Affairs Office (ICUPAO).
The houses were either abandoned by the beneficiaries or “sold” to others, said ICUPAO head Jeck Conlu.
The units were given to seven new beneficiaries. They were from the city government’s temporary shelters in Barangay San Isidro, Jaro.
There were over 60 families in the temporary shelters. Conlu said they will be prioritized once more erring socialized housing program beneficiaries will be stripped of their housing units.
The cleansing of ICUPAO’s list of beneficiaries is continuing.
In March, Councilor Jay Treñas, chairperson of the city council’s committee on urban poor, said around 70 beneficiaries of the city government’s housing relocation program may be booted out of the houses awarded to them.
They violated the conditions set to continue enjoying the city government’s socialized housing program, said Treñas.
“The violations included delinquent payment and their non-occupation of the housing units. Others were found to have rented out or sold their units to others,” said Treñas.
The city government has 7,864 housing program awardees, ICUPAO records showed.
In 2016, housing units were taken back by ICUPAO from 29 beneficiaries due to violations, said Conlu. Last month, ICUPAO sent notices of violation to some 200 beneficiaries.
“We also asked the homeowners’ associations and barangay officials to conduct their own validation. Thereafter, we will compare notes,” said Conlu.
Some of them claimed moving to their new homes would remove them far away from their sources of livelihood or that the relocation sites were far from their children’s schools.
ICUPAO is pushing for efficiency in the implementation of the city government’s housing program. Conlu, appointed to ICUPAO last November 2016, and City Administrator Hernando Galvez formed a team that will check the housing units and beneficiaries in relocation sites amid the growing backlog of applicants to the city’s mass housing program.
In the last five years, ICUPAO prioritized households displaced by big infrastructure projects like road widening and Iloilo River redevelopment, among others.
This year, the city’s priorities are illegal settlers in private lots with court notices of eviction.
But ICUPAO cannot demolish illegal settlements if there are no relocation sites for the displaced.
“We plan to build medium-rise buildings probably next year, in partnership with property developers,” said Conlu.
But the lack of funds remains a big challenge to fully accommodate over 12,000 urban poor mass housing applicants, he said. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency/PN)
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