CMP 27 1988-2015

H ousing is a basic human need. And yet, for decades, many Filipino families, especially those who belong to the poor and underprivileged sector, still don’t have a decent, permanent dwelling that could withstand the elements and tests of time, and where they can raise their progeny to maturity.

This c ome s as no surprise, as the Philippines is a country constantly beset by natural and manmade calamities. An average of 20 typhoons passes through the country annually. In 2013, 1.9 million Filipinos were made homeless by Super Typhoon Yolanda, the strongest typhoon to ever make land fall anywhere in the world.

Aside from natural calamities, migration from rural to urban areas, where land values and housing prices are commonly higher, has forced millions to live in informal shelters and slum communities.

To address the perennial problem of slum communities and homelessness, the government, through the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC), created a program that aims to improve the living conditions of homeless and underprivileged citizens by providing them affordable financing with which they can secure tenure on the land they occupy— the Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

For the past 27 years, the program has benefitted

"Hamon ng Kalikasan, Malalampasan ng Handang Pamayamanan"

thousands of informal settlers throughout Metro Manila and other parts of the country. It enabled informal settlers to form legally-incorporated community associations so they can purchase and develop land under the concept of community ownership, where they can relocate and restart their lives in the relative safety and comfort of these new communities.

The CMP is also one of the revolutionary approaches by the government in solving the national housing backlog, by empowering community associations and providing them with financial assistance schemes to build ideal communities and dwellings for their families.

Real estate developers and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) have also begun to show interest in developing socialized housing projects for community associations/ beneficiaries of the CMP program. Thus, the program encouraged the development of a socialized housing market, where real estate developers, NGOs, and community associations have benefitted. The beneficiaries received affordable housing that could withstand the tests of nature and time; while developers and NGOs were able to showcase their construction and building capabilities, and at the same time, show a sense of corporate social responsibility by developing projects that directly impact the poor and underprivileged.

The success of the CMP program would not be possible without the men and women at the Social Housing Finance Corporation, who sacrificed time, effort and resources to empower community associations through mortgage loans and bridging them with socialized housing developers. These are the people whose actions have turned imagined communities by the poorest of the poor into real, tangible communities, where a good future can take root and be nurtured.