WITH the help of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Quezon City government through its Housing Community Development and Resettlement Department is devising a plan for the city’s street dwellers.
On the orders of Mayor Herbert Bautista, Ed Madamba, HCDRD assistant head, invited some of the city’s underprivileged and homeless to attend an orientation on the Community Mortgage Program under Republic Act No.7279, or the Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992.
The program aims to assist underprivileged and homeless people to purchase and develop land under the concept of community ownership.
Quezon City is at the forefront in the provision of housing for vulnerable families, Madamba said.
To address the problem of street dwellers, the HCDRD will craft proposals for submission to the DSWD for review, and if these should be feasible, the city government will be partnering with them and other shelter organizations.
“Mayor Herbert Bautista has a shelter plan, and the implementation is within five years. We will collaborate with them (beneficiaries), and that we will not limit the partnership with the HCDRD and Office of the Mayor (only), but will tap the other stakeholders to enable us devise viable schemes for the beneficiaries of the DSWD,” Madamba said.
DSWD has subsidized the rent of 555 street dwellers in Quezon City by giving the families P3,500 every month under the conditional cash transfer or the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.