Under Aliling’s leadership, DHSUD is actively studying various housing modalities such as rental schemes, subdivision-style horizontal developments, and incremental housing – measures designed to accommodate different socioeconomic realities of Filipinos.
Aliling has also directed agencies under DHSUD to adjust their strategies. The Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) has been tasked to revive the Community Mortgage Program (CMP), while the National Housing Authority (NHA) was instructed to scale up its pro-poor housing initiatives.
Participants in the dialogue welcomed the department’s openness to people’s plans, especially those crafted by urban poor communities. These include proposals for CMP and high-density housing (HDH), where residents take part in designing and implementing their own housing projects.
The shift appears to be bearing fruit: three private developers have already pledged over 50,000 units under the horizontal 4PHX component, while the University of the Philippines-Diliman has offered to partner on a rental housing scheme.
“While we are already pursuing those modalities, rest assured that DHSUD welcomes inputs from all stakeholders for the betterment of our programs, especially those that call for active participation from our beneficiaries from the project conceptualization up to execution,” Aliling said.
As DHSUD reorients its programs to align more closely with community-based approaches, it signals a renewed focus on inclusive governance in addressing the country’s housing crisis.
