HFC Partners With PNB To Curb Homelessness

HFC Partners With PNB

To Curb Homelessness

FRUITFUL PARTNERSHIP AHEAD. The Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) and the Philippine National Bank (PNB) forged a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that aims to solve the problem of illegal and informal settlements in PNB – owned properties. Leading the MOU signing are SHFC officials led by Ma. Ana Oliveros and PNB executives headed by Atty. Reynaldo Maclang.

To ensure a larger number of assisted informal settler families (ISFs) through housing finance, the Social Housing Finance Corporation (SHFC) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Philippine National Bank (PNB) on July 15 at the SHFC Headquarters in Makati City.

The partnership aims to address the problems of illegal and informal settlements in PNB – owned properties across the country, by enrolling the encroached families in the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) of the SHFC.

The CMP is a financing scheme, which assists legally-organized ISFs to purchase the lot where their houses are currently built, or to buy the lot in wherever available location they prefer. The program offers a maximum loanable amount of P250,000 per ISF, payable within 25 years with a yearly interest of 6 percent.

During the MOU signing, SHFC President Ma. Ana Oliveros said that the partnership with PNB is in line with the Corporation’s goal of making its programs proactive in order to respond to the problem of homelessness in the country.

“We wanted SHFC, not to wait for applications but to move forward certain demands on the ground. We’ve started working with local government units and we are now dealing with big landowners, corporations, and also the banks, whose properties are occupied by informal settlers, so that we are able to program our interventions with our prospective loan applications,” Oliveros added.

Since 2011, the PNB has a couple of successful projects with the SHFC, wherein the bank’s squatting problems have been addressed through the CMP. This prompted the PNB to ink a formal partnership with the SHFC.

“We share in your vision in being an active participant in helping our underprivileged brothers, to own the place they live in,” a PNB official said.

The PNB has already identified a total of 800 properties that can be enrolled through the CMP. 9 priority projects in Valenzuela City, Quezon City, Isabela, and Negros Oriental that will benefit at least 1,500 ISFs are expected to be under the CMP before the year ends.

Aside from the identification of the properties, the PNB will also assist the ISFs in organizing themselves in order to qualify for CMP.

SHFC, on the other hand, will ensure faster processing of loan documents within 120 working days and will provide technical assistance to loan applicants.

SHFC is the lead agency providing flexible, affordable, innovative, and responsive shelter financing solutions to underprivileged communities. /MP