COA flags NHA over delayed Tyhoon Yolanda housing

REHAB FAILURES Basion Eostrisimo is among the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) who have moved to a housing resettlement site at Santa Fe town on Cebu’s Bantayan Island. TheWorld Bank has reported weaknesses in the
national government’s rehabilitation program. —JUNJIEMENDOZA/CEBU DAILY NEWS

MILA, Philippines — The National Housing Authority (NHA) did not meet its target of giving 218,975 housing units to victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda due to delayed construction, slow turnover, and low occupancy.

The Commission on Audit (COA) said the NHA’s failure to meet its rehabilitation and recovery targets was detrimental to the thousands of Filipinos displaced by the 2013 supertyphoon.

“It is worth emphasizing that funds have been with the NHA for six years, yet for those years, Yolanda victims are still wanting a place to call their homes,” a 2020 audit report on the NHA said.

Under the Yolanda Permanent Housing Program, the NHA set a revised target of 218,975 housing units in 2020 for displaced families in Regions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 13, with 96,424 units in Region 6.

The COA found that only 139,516 housing units or 64 percent of the 218,975 units were completed by the NHA and local governments as of the end of 2020. Most of the completed housing units were in Regions 5, 6 and 8.