Shelter finance strategies for the poor: Philippines

Abstract

In the Philippines, rapid urbanization casts a serious challenge to providing the urban poor with access to decent shelter. The urban poor lack access not only to appropriate housing but also to affordable, tenured, serviced land, shelter financing, targeted and sustainable subsidies and the means to provide their own shelter. This paper focuses on shelter finance strategies for the poor because it is a key instrument for addressing their shelter problem. The paper critiques the current shelter finance innovations that have been developed in the Philippines to provide for poor households, especially those in the informal sector, and identifies possible areas of improvement in shelter finance for them.