HPFPI - PACSII

Philippines

Disaster Interventions to Typhoon Frank Affected Families

A short documentation of the Homeless Peoples Federation Philippines, Inc. January 2009

Context
The City of Iloilo, Philippines which was tremendously affected by Typhoon Frank (Fengshen as its international codename) last June 2008, has started to recover gradually from its normal state prior to disaster. The city government has undertaken deliberate immediate actions, with strong support from national government, business sector, various civil society organizations and the whole Ilonggos community took their respective complementary roles/part, to revive the city, particularly the economic activities. In line of its thrust to provide immediate intervention to disaster-stricken area, the HPFPI and PACSII, together with the two urban poor federations in Iloilo City that comprised the Iloilo City Urban Poor Network (ICUPN) have facilitated the construction of transit houses and the provision of housing materials assistance for the Typhoon affected families. Some affected families who stayed for almost three months in the evacuation centers, such as in churches, gyms, school, multi -purpose hall, returned to their respective original places which is still considered as

An applicant with ruined kitchen in the background, as a result of Typhoon Frank. She cooked food for the family in her mothers house for the meantime .

high risk areas. While 58 households opted to avail the socialized housing program of the city government and have already occupied the transitory housing units built in the 16.2 hectares relocation site provided by the city for those families affected by the Iloilo Flood Control Project (IFCP) as originally planned but has accommodated later those affected by the typhoon. Five months after the disaster, however, the HPFPI, and ICUPN in its continued community visits and consultations with the urban poor communities, found out that there were significant number of urban poor who failed to have access to relief goods, social services and other assistance because they are far from the city and chose to stay in their house during the heavy typhoon. Many of them could hardly repair their damaged structures because of lack of finance to do so. It is in this context that HPFPI and ICUPN have undertaken decisive steps to provide basic housing materials assistance in the form of a loan, worth P5,000 per family-beneficiary, targeting 200 families in total. This project aims to support individual families through community associations to reconstruct/repair their houses. It is being sponsored by the Misereor (Germanybased donor, Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and the Jersey Overseas Aid (UK-based NGO).

Community visit to Hamungaya community , a remoteresettlement, which was greatly affected by Typhoon Frank.

Housing Materials Assistance

After long discussions, the HPFPI and the ICUPN, as implementing agencies, have decided to utilize the fund in the form of housing materials loan, rather than a grant, purposely to revolve the fund to benefit other communities which are also in need. Each family is entitled to have a maximum loan of P5,000.00 worth of housing materials. The loan is payable within 12 months with corresponding interest which will go to the Association as incentive. Labor component shall be the counterpart of the applicant. Application will be coursed through the Association for a more organized and manageable distribution of materials in the local area. Identification and prioritization of qualified applicants will be done by the Association as living proof that they are indeed Team members review the applicants form and requirements. affected by the typhoon 5 months ago. It will be supported by certification from any local government units such as the barangay, Iloilo City Urban Poor Affairs Office (ICUPAO) and City Social Welfare Development Office (CSWDO). The Network, on the other hand, has been conducting house-to-house visit and photo documentation as part of their cross-validation process. This undertaking also aimed at building and empowering communities and Networks capacities in financial, procurement, management and leadership skills. A team (Typhoon Frank Team as it is called) , consist of HPFPI and new ICUPN representatives, was created to assist the potential communities in the process and project monitoring. The implementing agencies are currently undertaking community orientation and participatory planning with target communities.

Participating Communities
Seven urban poor associations, or 260 applicants/families, from different citys relocation sites have applied to avail the housing materials assistance from the Network. However, only 200 families will be accommodated at the moment, considering the availability of fund. Thus, the Network needs to prioritise them as to who really have urgent need for house repair, using the results from the validation. Relocatees from each resettle- Name of Commu- # of Faminity lies ment area have its own story Megaworld 80 to tell. They were victims of eviction as a result of megaLanit 27 infrastructure development Banuyao 42 (like the Iloilo Flood Control Project, Megaworld DevelBitoon 11 oper), natural and man-made SILANA 32 calamities, demolished from COSHENA 43 private property, road easeThe folCRITERIA FOR SELECTION: Hamungaya 25 lowing is ment and high-risk areas. The city government has an annual TOTAL 260 1. Has security of land tenure or living in high the list of allocation of 5% of its total commu-risk areas affected by Typhoon Frank revenue for land acquisition to address the issue of security nities of land tenure in the city. 2. Active member of the association and 3. Identified/Certified partially or totally dam- number For instance, the Lanit Relocation Site, with 200 families of famiaged structure by the LGU/Iloilo City Urevicted from a private property, have been occupying the lies apban Poor Office (ICUPAO) plying for land for 11 years now. During flashflood, according to one 4. Preference shall be given to membercommunity member in an interview, water level have the maUrban Poor Organisation reached to the rooftop (of a one storey house) and people terial were stocked there in two days. Until now, access road go5. Has the willingness to repay assising to the site is still being negotiated. It took them one hour tance. 6. Willing to perform community savings travel from this area to the city.

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REQUIREMENTS: 1. Duly accomplished loan application form from ICUPN

Community Participation and Process

TERMS and CONDITIONS: 1. Loanable amount is P5,000 per family beneficiary 2. Interest rates and payments options: For 7- 12 months 6% per annum For 4- 6 months 3% per annum 3. Payments shall be remitted daily to the Associations Treasurer 4. Delay in payments and non-payments shall be met out with corresponding penalties 5. Loan shall be in the form of housing/ roofing materials assistance. 6. Housing materials should be used solely for housing repair/ reconstruction. Cash equivalent of housing materials is not allowed/strictly prohibited.

2. Certificate of good membership Peoples participation in this undertaking can standing signed by the Urban Poor Organizations President be seen not merely in the application but all throughout the process. Together with the and Secretary 3. Background check, interview and attendance during community orientation

Team, they are the ones who identify, prioritise and finalise the materials they needed for housing repair. Total cost of proposed housing materials should be within the P5,000 4. Certification from the Barangay, maximum loan. Communities associations role in the pre-screening of applicants is also City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), crucial in terms of identifying who are really in need. ICUPAO as proof that he/she The Team tries to establish the procurement process at the community level by involving the people in the quotation, purchasing, ordering, releasing and recording of ordered materials. This community-based procurement process has been adopted by the Network, with first hand experience from Community Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) which is currently being implemented also in Iloilo City.
was Typhoon Frank affected family.

Community savings is also being induced in every aspirant community purposely to build communities financial capacity and management. To start with, individual repayment through the Association will be treated as savings until his/her loan is fully paid. Repayment will start a month after full delivery of materials to every community. Savings will be used as a strategy for people to appreciate the value of savings and eventually adopt it as a way of life. Actually, some of these communities have already started their community savings way back years ago and they just need revival. Two local associations, SILANA and COSHENA, or 75 families have been receiving their housing materials based on the individual order. Recently, some of them started to repair their houses as proposed. The Team conducted a project evaluation/assessment highlighting their experiences and learnings with the communities as the project implementation occurs. Learnings were well-noted and taken into consideration for the next communities to avail.

SILANA and COSHENA members take the lead in the procurement and distributuion of housing materials.

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Provision of Transitory Housing for the Homeless Project Status

Sixty-two (62) units of transit houses were built for the homeless families affected by Typhoon Frank. There are 58 households, comprised of 67 families or 293 individuals, benefitting in the same structure . They came from 9 different barangays of Iloilo City that was greatly affected by the typhoon, mainly from District of Jaro. Of the 62, 58 units have been occupied for sleeping purposes while 4 units were intended for childrens learning/study center and community meeting hall. Affected families who have been staying in the evacuation center for almost three months have finally transferred to their temporary shelter last September 24, 2008. An adhoc committee was formed purposely to screen/ select qualified applicants for the transit housing. Representatives from ICUPN actively participate in the process. The committee is also seen as a venue by the Network to discuss and address concerns on double availment of citys socialized housing program through cross-validation and counterchecking of potential housing beneficiaries from different housing programs. and influence policies and management style that is community-led and participatory process. There was a change in the citys resettlement plan as to who will be accommodated in the 16.2 hectares resettlement land by the city government. This will not be only the land for the IFCP-affected families but also for the typhoon frank affected families. The City Mayor has declared to accommodate the typhoon affected families in the same resettlement area, provided they will be included in any of the different housing packages such as from Gawad Kalinga (450 units); Department of Social Welfare and Development Office (500 units); Philippine National Red Cross ( 750 units) and the Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility (CLIFF) Phase II (172 units). Except from CLIFF Phase II, the housing programs from various organizations stated above are given for-free or grant but peoples participation is limited only to sweat/labor equity. On the other hand, CLIFF housing project is a loan given to IFCP affected families and is undertaking communityled process. The occupants (58 HHs) in the transit houses are actually the first batch of Gawad Kalingas housing beneficiaries. They will temporarily stay in this structure until such time their permanent houses are constructed in the same site. After then, a new batch of qualified beneficiaries will move in to the transit houses until the target beneficiaries for all housing programs are completed or until the structure lasts.
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Procurement process for the transitory housing initiative was also replicated from CLIFF experiences. The Alliance wanted to institutionalize community-based procurement process in all its initiatives/projects so as to establish transparency and sense of accountability at the grassroots level. This undertaking spearheaded by the Homeless Peoples Federation Philippines, Inc. (HPFPI) and the Philippine Action for Community-led Shelter Initiatives, Inc. (PACSII) or Alliance as it is known, with collaborative effort of the Iloilo City Urban Poor Network (ICUPN) and the Iloilo City government., and being supported by the Jersey Overseas Aid (UK-based NGO).
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The provision of transitory housing for the typhoon affected families was conceived and replicated from the HPFPIs successful experience in Guinsaugon, Southern Leyte wherein transit houses were also constructed in 2006 for the mudslide affected families.

SUMMARY OF PROJECT DETAILS

Total No. of Transit Houses No. of Occupied Units No. of Units for Community Center/ Study Area Total No. of Households Benefitted Total No. of Individuals Benefitted Total No. of Barangays Accommodated Proposed Cost per Unit Actual Cost per Unit Total Project Cost 62 units 58 units 4 units 58 HH or 67 families 293 individuals 9 Barangays (villages) P27,500.00 P20,000.00 (materials & labor) P1,240,000.00

COMMUNITY GARDEN

The Transit House

WATER SUPPLY

A single unit of a transit house

Each unit of rowhouse-type transit house has a total floor area of 18.2 square meters, in which one household occupies for sleeping purposes only. Household chores and activities like cooking, washing, dining, bathing and among others can be done in the communal facilities/area (15 meters away from the transit housing) which the city government has provided. It is also significant to mention that actual cost per unit of transitory housing (materials and labor costs) is only P20,000 against the proposed budget per unit which is P27,500 . There is a savings of P7,500 per unit because some housing materials were donations from and additional laborers were provided by the city government. The construction works of 62 units lasted for 2 months. Originally, we only target for 50 units of transit houses to accommodate those who are homeless after Typhoon Frank. However, our City Mayor Jerry Treas asked for additional units to accommodate all families still staying in the evacuation center for almost three months. He gave 500 pieces of cement boards, which we used as indoor partition walls in the transit houses. As stated in the proposal, the minimum site development/communal facilities that have materialized were as follows:
Additional landfilling on site and ongoing

land compaction
Provision of:

a. electrical power supply which is con nected to the barangays streetlight b. open canal as drainage system c. water supply by setting-up a water tank connected to shallow well with hand pumps.
Construction of:

- Sonia F. Cadornigara HPFPI Visayas Coordinator

a. 20 units of comfort room b. 10 units of bath room c. Communal kitchen and dining area As to the labor component, the city government through the City Mayors Office employed 11 construction workers to augment to HPFPIs labor force in order to speed up the construction. Volunteers from different agencies and network like the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), ICUPAO and ICUPN member communities were mobilized, using the Food for Work as a strategy.
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Citys Counterpart
Apart from providing land for resettlement, minimum site development and labor component are the two major roles of the city government in coordination with the national government.

Provision of Transitory Housing for the Homeless Post Relocation Activities

BATHROOM

KITCHEN & DINING AREA

Photo (L): COMMUNITY GARDEN: Vacant lot is temporar-

ily being utilized for vegetation and gardening of occupants. Seedlings are being provided by the City Agriculture Office. This is one source of livelihood/ food of the occupants in their new community.
Photos (R): CLEANLINESS & MAINTENANCE: Cleaners are

assigned everyday to keep the communal facilities always clean as much as possible.
We are very grateful to our civil society organizations like the Homeless Peoples and PACSII for responding to our call on disaster intervention, particularly on Typhoon Frank. Providing temporary shelter to our homeless constituents is a very good idea. This is a big help to the city! Our city government tried its best to complete the construction of the communal facilities to address the many concerns of relocatees, - Rony H. Firmeza Chairperson Iloilo City Urban Poor Affairs Office

COMMUNITY SAVINGS orientation with the transit hous-

ing occupants have already conducted.

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SOURCE OF LIVELIHOOD: Transit houses are not only for sleeping purposes, but also to earn a living. Sari -sari or mini-grocery store are prevalent in the site.