In a bid to address Davao City’s housing backlogs, the 20th City Council on November 2023 declared the Davao City Housing Office (DCHO) as a new department of the city government, separate and independent from its former mother unit, the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO).
This, after the Local Housing Board (LHB) approved LHB Resolution No. 14-22 on September 9, 2022 which recommended the creation of the City Housing Office as a regular department within the Davao City Government.
EnP. Estela Malate, then Division Head, is now the Officer-in-Charge of the DCHO.
Malate, a licensed environmental planner with more than 30 years of experience in local governance, said the city’s growing economy, which is normal for highly urbanized cities, introduced the growing number of illegal settler families (ISFs), invariably exacerbating Davao City’s housing backlogs.
The creation of DCHO, she said, symbolizes the local government’s commitment to address this issue and house the underprivileged by implementing a cohesive, affordable, and sustainable shelter program.
“Ang goal gyud is dili lang siya housing, dili lang siya to provide affordable, safe and decent housing para sa homeless, persons living in hazard prone-areas and low-income families, pero mahimo gyud siyang sustainable,” she said in an interview with the CIty Information Office on May 22.
The DCHO’s objectives of addressing the backlog and establishing sustainable human settlements anchor its Local Shelter Plan (2022-2031).
As a newly created department, Malate said the DCHO is currently working on digitizing its data and its system through the CITC. The Housing Management Information System (HMIS) is on on-going development by the technical experts of CITC. It envisions to enhance effective and efficient delivery of services to its clients. This aims to develop a comprehensive data based user-friendly management information system that will fully automate processing of documents in order to provide timely and accurate information to its clients and executives as basis for decision making.
With all this, DCHO is also preparing to occupy a more spacious office enough to house additional manpower and equipped with other needed resources to cope with its operational functions.
Hiring of technical experts and other qualified personnel to the DCHO is yet to start.
For now, the DCHO is continually conducting census for ISFs and prospective beneficiaries for future housing projects. The DCHO will start the census with its new census form in the ISFs within the 355.7 ha Regional Government Center in Bago Oshiro.
It is also currently managing the Slum Improvement and Resettlement (SIR) Sites, the 62 Homeowners’ Associations for the Urban Land Reform Program (ULRP), and other resettlements sites built from various schemes. The city also continuous to acquire lots through its Landbanking Program.
Malate clarified that not all ISFs will be automatically qualified for various relocation and housing programs of the city. She said the screening process will make sure that those belonging below poverty threshold and with no landholding will be prioritized by the DCHO.
In August 2021, the House of Representatives declared a housing crisis in the country through House Resolution 1677. A 2023 United Nations report projected that the country’s 6.5 million housing backlogs in 2022 will balloon to 22 million by 2024 if the state fails to come up with solutions to alleviate the problem. CIO