DAVAO CITY—The 18th City Council is fast-tracking its local shelter plan to address the 59,000 house backlog and give these homes to qualified informal settlers, 11 years after the passing of Shelter Code Ordinance of Davao City in 2007.
Councilor Rene Elias Lopez, chairman on Housing, Rural and Urban Development Low-End Projects, said that the Local Shelter Plan will address all the needs of the informal settlers not only the housing but the economy in their new place as well.
“We all know that many informal settlers refused to be relocated, that is why in the Local Shelter Plan we include the creation of an economy in their relocation area,” Lopez said.
Asked the reason behind the delay of the creation code, the councilor said that it took them time to create a community and develop the water and electricity that the people needs.
Lopez said that they will be needing P39 billion for the creation of the 59,000 houses that will be built in a 223-hectare lot.
“As of the moment we are already looking on a 100-hectare lot, but that is not enough to accommodate the backlog,” he said.
He said that they will be holding a multi-stakeholder meeting to discuss the matter and to find support from the private sectors.
“We will ask for the help of the different stakeholders to gather the amount that we need so that we can materialize this project,” he said.
Lopez said that data that they have is from the National Statistics Office 2010 survey in the city.
He said that in the next 5 years they are expecting that the number will balloon from 59,000 to 123,000 informal settlers. By this time the city will be needing 668 hectares for the construction of the houses.