Why the Government's Housing Program Failed

The low-cost and socialized housing program of the government is a failure!

The failure is shown basically by the number of foreclosed housing units. In 3 subdivisions in Sto. Tomas and Tanauan Batangas (Imperial Homes, Blue Isle, and Ramonita), 65% of the units have been foreclosed, and 10% more have received foreclosure notices from private developers and government housing agencies.

Where does the problem lie? Is it just because the loan borrowers are very irresponsible in paying their loans? Is it because the policies are not that strict that borrowers have the luxury of evading their obligations? Or is it due to factors other than the anti-social and anarchistic personality of the borrowers?

I want to point out first the status of the borrowers. Majority belong to the working class, ranging from the professionals, managers and supervisors, and down to the ranks, including the agency-hired workers (5 mos/5 mos), and others that do not receive their regular paycheck with regular amount (contractual and in rotation schedule).

All of the borrowers have been approved by the housing agencies for a loan because of their jobs. But come 2007 and onwards, specially the last part of 2008, the Global Financial Crisis kicked-in, affecting majority of the companies situated in the Calabarzon area. The business sector, with help from the government, implemented counter-crisis measures to safeguard their companies and their profit. These measures ranged from cost-reduction schemes, rotation of personnel, flexible scheduling, down-sizing, and closure.

With all of the above-mentioned schemes in saving companies' profits, the most affected are the workers. The workers' job security are sacrificed for profit. As a result, the workers buying capacity is also sacrificed. With a reduced income, to some, no income at all, the budget allotment of the family should also be down-sized and flexible enough to make ends meet. And among the most sacrificed expense is that for the housing loan. True enough, how can you sacrifice the budget for food, education, and utilities like water? never mind power because one can live without electricity.

Assessing the above statements, the logical explanation why the housing program failed is because it is marketed as big business by the investors, which is affected by the country's economy. The government cannot inter-twine into the same objective social service and profit, targeting reduction of the number of people without a house to live-in, and the real estate developers' quest for big profit.

Our lawmakers and public officials should be sincere in providing the basic necesities like shelter for a family. The laws should be revised to serve the people. If the present laws are not serving the people, then by all means let's have charter change. And moreover, let's have a systems change.