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Social Housing in the Philippines: Understanding the Government’s Mandate
This article is part one of two articles analyzing the condition of social housing in the Philippines.
An important tenet in modern society is the right to housing or shelter. A recognized part of our human rights across the world, it gives every government and state a mandate to provide adequate housing to even the poorest and most vulnerable people. And a modern-day solution for this mandate is social housing, also known as public housing.
Social housing are housing projects made by the government in some capacity or another to address inequality in quality shelter for different families. These are usually crafted to be durable but cheap, affordable to buy or rent by disadvantaged families. A good, sustainable housing program tends to help reduce instances of slums or shoddily-built private projects in the city.
To give our readers a better understanding of this issue, BluPrint Magazine spoke with the National Housing Authority’s in-house architect Rochelle De Vera. This illuminates the process of how the government builds these houses, and accurately portrays the limitations of the country’s current programs today.
History of Social Housing
The beginnings of social housing came about due to the Industrial Revolution and the deluge of workers and families living in the cities. Many were forced to live in private, rented slums owned by private developers. These places tended to be overcrowded and inadequate in sanitation, space, privacy, and access to utilities and basic resources.
You can see some of this in past media like It’s A Wonderful Life, where the main antagonist, Henry Potter, owns shoddily-made homes described as “slums” that he rents out to his workers. The protagonist is hated by Potter specifically for providing affordable loans that allow lower-income families to own their homes. Lots of books from the Victorian era, like those of Charles Dickens, also highlight the poor living conditions many people endured.
With many of their populace calling for an intervention against such brazenly terrible conditions, the government sought solutions to provide a better existence for people. Countries passed different laws to address the matter in the beginning of the century, from the United Kingdom’s Housing and Planning Act in 1919 to the United States’ own Housing Act in 1937.
Housing projects like these were mired down by institutional classism and racism. In the United States, for example, much of the public housing was segregated by race, and when it was forcibly de-segregated in the 1960s, long-term campaigns to reduce funding for these houses remained. Many attempts to privatize these projects also loomed over the decades.
Considering the terrible, inhuman treatment of homeless people in the United States, Europe, and the West in general, the importance of public housing remains a paramount concern even in first-world countries.
Poverty and the Philippines
The Philippines’ problems with poverty and housing are multilayered and complicated. Part of it is how the government defines poverty. The current metric used by the PSA necessitates an average income of PhP 13,873 per month for a family of five to not be considered poor.
Their calculations utilize unrealistic metrics for the poverty line, like a family being able to spend only PhP 21 per meal. Labor organizations like IBON Foundation calculated that a more accurate livable average income for a family of five would be PhP 26,590 per month. And even then, this calculation only provides less than PhP 5,000 for housing and rent.
This prevalent strain from poverty in the Philippines shows why social housing remains a vital part of the social services given by the government. Poor families still need homes, especially as poor families continue to struggle even in a strong labor market and economy. And what else is a centralized government for but to provide help and protect the most vulnerable members of our society?
The Philippines’ Approach to the Matter
The Philippines does have a long history of public housing projects to bridge the inequality of access to shelter.
Our government established two agencies aimed at providing housing to low-income families—the People’s Homesite Corporation and the National Housing Commission, in 1938 and 1945, respectively. Six other agencies were established over the years to address that need. Eventually, the government consolidated all of these agencies into the National Housing Authority (NHA) in 1975.
In 2019, the government transferred the NHA to be under the newly-established Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD). Since then, both agencies handle the work of public housing in different capacities. DHSUD handles the policy and program coordination to align it with the national government, and the NHA handles the actual production and funding of the homes.
Finding the Beneficiaries of a Social Housing Project
During our interview, architect De Vera said that these resettlement and social housing projects begin when local government units provide a master list of residents in need of their services. Sometimes, the displaced residents themselves come in with their own land and ask for help from the NHA to help them build their houses.
“During social preparation, we determine through the master list of beneficiaries given to us by LGU or the affected area the number of beneficiaries who need a resettlement, who need a housing unit,” she said.
Typically, the government usually has land already earmarked for residential development for these circumstances. Otherwise, displaced residents typically go through a “ community-based initiative approach” where, with the backing of the government, they can also ask private developers for land where they can build their homes.
“If the community needs a resettlement site for them, they can reach the LGU or the private developers, they can tap them and help them magkaroon ng site. Si developer ang mag-o-offer sa amin ng site. So, this time, hindi kami ang naghahanap, may hinahanap na, inooffer na lang sa amin,” she said.
[The developer can offer us a site. So, this time, we don’t look for the land, they’re looking for the land and they just offer it to us.]
All of these sites, whether owned by the government or by private entities, undergo months of site suitability testing to ensure the land’s viability as a residential project to build houses.
Specifications on How the NHA Builds Houses
The Philippines’ approach to social housing was officially established in 1982 with Batas Pambansa 220 (BP 220). This law provides the strict guidelines and standards that dictate the construction of houses today, including the price ceiling of each housing unit provided to the family (PhP 850,000 per unit).
“Since our beneficiaries are low-income families, it has to be economically sustainable. So it has to be low in initial cost, [utilizing] cost-efficient material, and of course, the maintenance and the cost efficient operation [of the houses] as much as possible. We introduced innovative materials, which are lower in cost compared to conventional materials,” architect De Vera said.
Architect De Vera said that the most popular typologies built for social housing projects are five-storey low-rise apartments in the National Capital Region, and row houses for provincial projects.
“For Metro Manila, due to scarcity of land, our standard design is five-storey low-rise buildings, because this is the most efficient vertical development we can provide due to non-provision of elevators. Kasi, it will add additional costs, the maintenance of elevators, and the administration [of this] will add additional costs to our beneficiaries,” she said.
“[For provincial houses], normally, we propose row house typology, because it is more economical and it will generate more housing units,” she continued. “However, there are cultural preferences that affect the typology. For example, in our projects in the Mindanao area, the community prefers a single-attach for privacy.
“It varies [depending] on the culture, but basically, [what] we want to achieve is to deliver a [large] number of housing units as much as possible. We focus on the delivering row house typology; that’s the typical na we deliver sa mga resettlement sites.”
Standards Set in Social Housing
Standards of how they build homes have evolved throughout the decades. De Vera highlights multiple standards in how they create social housing projects: socially-sustainable, environmentally-sustainable, and economically-sustainable.
A socially- and economically-sustainable community remains the top priority for the houses they craft. From site selection onwards, the NHA ensures that the areas where they’re building remains a viable place for people to live. Places of employment, for example, must be close-by and accessible to the residents, and the areas must be close to a main roadway for easier access.
“It must have existing public infrastructure, such as transportation, utilities, facilities, and as much as possible, it must be near or accessible to major employment opportunities. Definitely, it must be outside potential hazards and protected areas. Of course, it has to be residential in land use classification, and it must have an existing legal road [near it],” De Vera said.
“That’s one factor din kung bakit some of our beneficiaries do not want to be resettled on our site: wala daw ang the economic activity or walang employment opportunities. So we make sure during the selection process of the site [na] may mga adjacent—or at least within the proximity area—available livelihood and economic opportunities for them, para hindi na sila lalayo,” she continued.
Building a Community in Resettlement Sites
The NHA’s methods also attempt to ensure the creation of a socially-thriving community as well. BP 220 prescribes the need for a multipurpose hall for the neighborhood. However, the NHA goes well beyond that to ensure the social and cultural viability of the social housing project to its residents.
“In the NHA, we have these guidelines that prescribe more than the minimum requirement of the law,” she began. “We provide [the] appropriate number of community facilities to serve the socioeconomic needs and cultural activities of our beneficiaries as well as encourage them in the implementation of environmental management programs in our housing sites.
“So, aside from the multipurpose centers, we also provide a talipapa, tricycle terminal, material recovery facility, livelihood training center, and health center. That’s the minimum community facilities that we provide in our resettlement site.
“As the number of units increases, more facilities should be provided. This is where we introduce the school building, wet and dry market, jeepney terminal, [and] police outpost or substation. So, they are well provided with a very good community. “
Evolving Our Standards to Building Homes
Over the years, the way the NHA designs social housing projects have evolved towards facing different challenges in our society. Beyond the need for shelter, it recognizes that we require environmentally-sustainable solutions to ensure the survival of a housing community for years to come.
“NHA is an advocate of environmental sustainability,” De Vera said. “As much as possible, we incorporate this [in] our design, or we encourage the use of environmentally-friendly materials [in] the construction. We promote water and energy conservation, waste reduction, and land conservation.”
This evolution of importance in design ideals appears informed by the lingering challenges of the moment, from climate change to gender inequality to the class divide that removes opportunity from the poor.
Some of the interesting factors that have evolved as important over the years include gender sensitivity and disaster resilience. Gender sensitivity pertains to allowing women and children the space, privacy, and freedom to pursue other personal and economic interests.
“We have housing models which have floor space to boost the economic activities of the [family], particularly the members of the family who want to have a small sari-sari store,” De Vera said.
The disaster resiliency came about as an important factor in the houses’ designs due to the effects of Typhoon Yolanda. Because of that and the looming effects of climate change, stronger houses became a necessity.
“We have established a standard housing model that was designed to withstand the wind of 300 kilometers per hour and a magnitude of at least seven to 8.4,” she said about some of the hallmarks for disaster resiliency.
Funding Problems
The NHA’s approach to social housing is certainly ambitious and inclusive, finding ways to create a sustainable solution to the housing problem of impoverished people despite the limits prescribed by the law.
And yet, even they can’t help everyone. Like any government entity, funding problems also plague the NHA, to the point where they sometimes are unable to meet the needs of all the residents who require houses.
“Of course, since we were constrained with the budget, basically not all naman we can provide. Like, if they need, like, 1,000 or 3,000 units, but the [budget is] not enough for the 3,000 units, we try to accommodate them, perhaps on the next budgeting season. Parang yun yung mga hindrances namin, pero as much as possible, we provide kung ano po yung nasa master list,” she said.
Prioritization of Budget
Interestingly, while the PhP 850,000 price ceiling makes things affordable for poorer families, it also prevents an optimization of design for the houses. De Vera admitted, for example, that the prioritization of disaster resiliency tended to add “additional costs” to the project that reduces the amount of houses they can currently build.
“When planning, the prioritization of factors is highly dependent on the budget,” she began. “For a socialized housing project, we are dependent with the funds granted to us through GAA (General Appropriations Act), and at the same time, we are constrained with the price ceiling set forth by the DSHUD and NEDA. So, we are very much aware that disaster resilience design may entail additional costs. This likewise hinders us [from] deliver[ing] significant amounts of housing.”
The current 2025 allocation for the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development is PhP 2.9 billion. Around PhP 683.9 million earmarked specifically for the Marcos administration’s pet national housing project Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program, or the 4PH program. The NHA, meanwhile, was allocated PhP 2.45 billion for its subsidy programs.
The Essentiality of Housing for All
Social housing remains a complicated and politically-loaded endeavor even today. It is very much a time of fervent income and class inequality within the country, where cloistered bubbles of wealth can coexist alongside overcrowded slums and aging infrastructure, at times vividly illustrating the divide of the rich and the poor.
With that in mind, the efforts of socially-minded government agencies like the National Housing Authority are crucial in bridging the gap to ensure better living conditions for all Filipinos. Housing is a basic human right, and one that we must uphold for everyone to ensure a stable, egalitarian society for all.
Related reading: Is This the Future of Affordable Sustainable Housing in the Philippines?
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