𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔, 𝑴𝒂𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒏 𝑪𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝑨𝒅𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒐𝒓 𝑫𝒓. 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒕𝒆! 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐔𝐒 𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧: 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟔, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

𝐁𝐲 𝐉𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐧

Manila, (PIA) – Malabon City Administrator Dr. Alexander Rosete highlighted local government strategies for implementing effective housing programs at the International Conference on Urban Affairs (ICUA) held in New York from April 24-27.

Rosete, the former director of Manila’s Urban Settlements Office and concurrent head of the Malabon City Housing and Development Department, was the only Filipino presenter at the 52nd annual ICUA organized by the Urban Affairs Association. The conference brought together urban researchers, planners and policy advocates to examine strategies for building more equitable and resilient cities.

During his presentation, Rosete discussed studies, evaluations and recommendations for better implementing Manila’s “Land for the Landless Housing Services Program (LLP),” aimed at eradicating poverty by providing housing aid to informal settlers.

The LLP seeks to enable residents to acquire lands where their houses were built and ensure those areas are safe, secure and healthy.

Rosete shared how the program could be improved through measures like improving collection efficiency to help beneficiaries pay for their purchased lands, integrating livelihood opportunities, redesigning payment processes, shifting to digital payments, and implementing robust monitoring and evaluation.

He also highlighted Malabon’s local housing strategies, including creating a department focused on providing better homes for residents.

“Through this study, we have identified several challenges and issues of the LLP, including recommendations on how to address these problems so that we can effectively deliver it to our people and improve their way of living,” Rosete said.

“With effective programs and other innovations, the residents of Manila and Malabon will have adequate shelters or homes, and with the recommendations made, we will be able to align our goals for housing to the needs of the residents,” he added.

The presentation aimed to help local governments uplift underprivileged sectors by identifying areas of improvement for the long-running LLP program in Manila, which could potentially be adopted by other cities.

Key recommendations included integrating livelihood programs like “Cash 4 Work” to support beneficiaries, redesigning payment processes for efficiency, enabling digital payments, robust monitoring and evaluation, and adopting a “Multistream Management” approach emphasizing multiple dimensions of human wellbeing.

Rosete has been actively sharing Malabon’s housing initiatives at international conferences, including the recent Housing Studies Association meeting in the U.K. and an Australia-based housing research conference in February.

The ICUA served as a platform for urban scholars and practitioners worldwide to exchange insights on building more equitable cities in the post-pandemic era. (PIA-NCR)