Baguio City is the first local government unit in Northern Luzon to secure a grant from the government to implement its socialized housing project dubbed as the “permaculture community.”
City Planning and Development Coordinator Dona R. Tabangin said the city obtained a P255 million grant for the city’s socialized housing project from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD).
The project covers putup of several structures within a 1.8-hectare city-owned property.
Tabangin said the city can build eight structures that could accommodate 270 housing units with provisions for road networks and a bio-filtration plant and ready for solar farms in the roofs of the structures.
Permaculture is a holistic approach to regenerative living that highlights individual and community responsibilities for sustainability and focuses on choice, values, ethics, and the way in which human beings interact with the natural world.
Sustainable living is a lifetime choice that considers a person’s relationship within the community and the natural environment and seeks harmony with both.
Tabangin said 40 percent of the land will be the built up area while the remaining 60 percent will be devoted for green spaces.
The city will initially put up two structures with 64 units to be offered to residents in identified high-risk areas.
She said the Irisan permaculture community will be the first of its kind of socialized housing project not only in the Cordillera but also in northern Luzon and will be the model for similar projects to be established in other parts of the country.
One of the major projects of the city is for the putup of decent socialized housing projects for the housing needs of the city’s informal sector and residents living in identified high-risk areas.
Tabangin said the preparation of the plans and specifications of the socialized housing project is a combined effort of the City Planning and Development Office, City Engineering Office, City Environment and Parks Management Office, and City Buildings and Architecture Office.
The project will be implemented in partnership with the DHSUD and the National Housing Authority. – PIO release
