“I share the vision of my father, Cong. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin, to provide decent housing for the members of the urban poor.”
Thus said Angeles City Councilor Carmelo “Pogi” Lazatin, Jr., after he filed the Housing Program Funds Allocation Ordinance last July 12, 2016, which calls for the mandatory allotment of 10 percent of the city government’s total annual budget for housing programs for the city’s urban poor.
“Housing for urban poor was one of the top priorities of Mayor Lazatin. During his time, he was able to provide housing for 15,000 families.
“I would like to continue that,” Lazatin said.
As stipulated in the ordinance, the Housing Development Fund will be solely used to finance land acquisition for socialized housing programs as well as the development of community sites such as road networks, pathways, and drainages and “no expenditures arising from the hiring of personnel and release of salaries and other similar privileges shall be appropriated from the fund.”
The ordinance also mandates the city government to cooperate with the Local Urban Poor Affairs and Housing Office (LUPAHO) and other concerned departments in the allocation and usage of the said fund.
“Rapid urbanization is a sign of a city’s development, however, it also has its drawbacks,” Lazatin said. “As a city becomes urbanized, more people are drawn to it because of the job opportunities and this tends to lead to the disproportionate growth of the population relative to housing.”
Lazatin said that in the year 2010 alone, 93.7 percent of Angeles City’s population resided in urban areas, prompting the National Statistics Office to identify it as one of the country’s most urbanized cities.
“I think it’s high time that we dedicate 10 percent of our city’s budget for urban poor housing,” Lazatin said.