Home Sweet Home: Strengthening Pagibig Fund’s Housing Programs towards Building Sustainable Homes

Abstract

A global housing crisis is caused by a number of things: overpopulation, inflation, the lack of affordable housing units, low income, land and labor shortage, and there are many international and nationwide efforts to combat this housing shortage. Among the several sustainable and affordable housing initiatives and programs by the Philippine government is the conception of the Pag-IBIG Fund, tasked to be responsible for national savings and affordable home financing. The objective of this study is to formulate and propose an action plan that would help strengthen Pag-IBIG Fund’s housing programs to promote sustainable housing among low-income Filipino workers. To formulate this, various literature suggest the need to gather the perceptions of both low-income and minimum-wage individuals who are members of the Pag-IBIG Fund and the Pag-IBIG Fund housing developer partners. To determine the housing problems, perception of sustainable housing, and effectiveness of Pag-IBIG’s housing programs, the researcher employed a quantitative approach with the use of a survey with data analyzed through various statistical treatments. Results show that the respondents concur that physical inadequacy, limited selection, and proximity are common housing problems of Filipino low-income earners. The study’s results served as the researcher’s basis in formulating the action plan containing a policy brief and a public relations plan for information dissemination.