Kadamay to call for nationwide distribution of idle housing units

Urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) on Saturday said it will undertake a nationwide protest to call for the distribution of all idle housing units in the country to the homeless poor.

In a statement on Saturday, Kadamay said that National Housing Authority's regional offices should "freely distribute" idle units to "people who are in dire need of housing."

It also called on the government to focus on its supposed "failed housing projects," instead of demolishing houses and evicting informal settlers.

“There are millions of Filipinos without a home or are under threat of demolitions. Throughout the country there are idle homes spread across numerous housing projects merely deteriorating in communities with little access to basic utilities," Kadamay chairperson Gloria “Ka Bea” Arellano was quoted as saying in the statement. 

"This is something we already know and can change. Kadamay will conduct organized efforts nationwide to push the national housing agency and the Duterte administration to distribute idle housing units to the poor as an immediate source of relief to those who need it most,” she added.

President Rodrigo Duterte last Tuesday asked soldiers and police personnel to just give up the housing units in Bulacan that were meant for them to Kadamay members who forcibly occupied the houses. But he swore he would give to beneficiary troopers and cops new and better houses.

Kadamay said that there are about 53,000 idle housing units for uniformed personnel, noting that there are idle houses in 61 relocation sites in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

“Kinukuha yung bahay na ginagawa ng NHA (National Housing Authority), ibibigay mo dun sa mga nanggugulo. Bad signal, Mr. President,” Gordon said on television. —Marlly Rome Bondoc/LBG, GMA News