UPA hashed-out list of families entitled to Pope Francis Village permanent housing

The Urban Poor Associates (UPA) spearheaded three separate consultations with eleven clustered homeowners associations (HOAs) to refine their list of members who will avail of permanent housing from Pope Francis Village (PFV). The activity was held at the activity area of Pope Francis Village in Barangay 99 Diit, yesterday. 

Prior to the start of land development and house construction, 550 families passed the initial screening process facilitated by UPA based on agreed qualification criteria for the PFV. The masterlist was submitted to the City Government through the City Housing Office.  However as physical development unfolds,  the social team sees the need to revisit and update the listing as there were some families who voluntarily withdrew their application and chose to avail of other housing projects. There's quite a few who are still being evaluated and may be possibly delisted on the ground of non-compliance with the agreements stated in the covenant entered into between the community stakeholders and FRANCESCO, a consortium that is supporting Pope Francis Village. 

The covenant explicitly highlights the major role of community stakeholders at various stages of the resettlement process. This is by way of extending labor counterpart in house construction either through volunteer work or by working full-time in construction. Unfortunately, not everyone has been religiously rendering labor equity at the site for various reasons. Some have been rendered handicapped after the disaster or because of old age are no longer capable of doing construction-related activities. Others  by personal choice decided not to send any family member to work in construction because earning a living is their immediate priority. These are stark realities from the ground which were taken consideration in yesterday's validation process. 

The approach was consultative as the HOAs themselves were involved in the process of validating the masterlist. Communities were divided into three clusters consistent with their present HOA clustering set-up in house construction.  The UPA called the attention of those members who haven't sent any volunteers or representatives to work at Pope Francis Village. It was very easy to track this because each member has an activity card where they log-in for attendance during construction or when there are community assemblies, countersigned by their respective cluster leaders. FRANCESCO also maintains a database that reflects the number of hours rendered by volunteers and community builders daily. 

The activity was an opportune venue for community stakeholder to re-evaluate their commitment to the community-led process that is being espoused by Pope Francis Village.   Except for the vulnerable ones (i.e. physically challenged, elderly, solo parent, orphans), inactive members who opted to continue, enlisted their names or their representatives who will render time and labor counterpart at the construction site. Others who have finally decided to back-out from PFV were asked to sign a waiver that they are voluntarily giving-up their slot for the permanent housing. These cases will be processed further by UPA and the HOAs before getting replacements from waitlisted families to fill the vacant slots.