A bill filed in the House of Representatives aims to empower the National Housing Authority (NHA) to sequester state-sponsored housing units that were abandoned or left unoccupied by the owners.
House Bill 9258 filed by PINUNO party-list Rep. Ivan Howard Guintu seeks to amend Presidential Decree 757 or the NHA charter, enabling the agency to revoke the award of beneficiaries of unoccupied or abandoned socialized housing units.
The measure grants the NHA the authority to confiscate housing units abandoned by the recipients for at least one year after the award of the contract.
The measure also allows the NHA to take back units occupied by a family other than the beneficiary or any member of the recipient-household, and transfer the unit to the actual occupants of the unit provided that a reasonable portion of the amortization payments made by the beneficiary will be returned.
If enacted into law, the bill tasked the NHA and local government units to do an inventory of unoccupied and abandoned socialized housing units in their jurisdictions.
Guintu cited the 2022 Performance Scorecard of the NHA Estate Management Department showing that 22,635 housing units were awarded, but left unoccupied or vacant as of June 2022.
“The substantial number of unoccupied or abandoned housing units of the NHA calls for measures to ensure that housing units of the NHA are awarded and utilized by qualified and deserving beneficiaries who will use and occupy the same,” Guintu said.
Guintu hopes his bill will allow the NHA to better utilize its resources in addressing the housing needs of the most vulnerable sectors of the population.