Proposed Housing Agency will Worsen the Housing Problem – NHA Union

Prone to corruption

The members of CUE fear that the creation of the DHUD would only result in massive corruption of funds and kickbacks from development projects therefore, depriving the poor of getting a shelter.

“Now that the housing problem in the country has become complex, the DHUD is considered to be another bureaucratic solution that will inevitably produce another bureaucratic layer of fat,” said Nartates.

“It will be an opportunity for bureaucrats and politicians for getting money from lobbying, bribery, commissions on government transactions and even putting, straight in their pockets, the funds supposed to be used in development and housing projects,” she added.

US-imposed?

CUE believes that the creation of the DHUD is a measure imposed by international finance institutions being controlled by the US, such as the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). These are the main agencies pushing for massive “development” of lands and for building infrastructures especially in rural areas, purportedly for speeding up “national development.”

Since the bursting of the housing bubble in the US in the late 1980s, when prices of housing projects dipped drastically, housing developers have been forced to export their capital and funds to mitigate the effects of the crisis of overproduction and unrealized profits, explained the CUE position paper.

International

The opposition to the proposed creation of the DHUD has become international.

During the Third International Assembly of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) in Hong Kong last month, the delegation of CUE gathered more than 100 signatures, from international delegates in support of the junking of what they call as anti-poor and anti-government employees DHUD bills. They hope to gather more signatures here, at home. (Bulatlat.com)