LESSON 1

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASPECT OF HOUSING

What is community development?
• Is the planned evolution of all aspects of community well-being (economic, social,
environmental, and cultural).
• Means that a community itself engages in a process aimed at improving the social,
economic, and environmental situation of the community.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Community development includes:
• Natural resources
• Human resources
• Financial resources and,
• Infrastructure resources

NATURAL RESOURCES are all the things that nature provides. Include things such as:
• Land, air, and water
• Minerals and surface/subsurface metals and ores
• Oil, gas, and petroleum
• Trees and other plants
• Wildlife and
• The standards, legislation and policies relating to the above.

HUMAN RESOURCES are about people. Human resources include thing such as:
• Healthy families and lifestyles
• Skills building, education, and employment
• Career planning and employment
• Effective and legal hiring practices
• Workers’ compensation and pensions
• Human rights and labor laws

FINANCIAL RESOURCES include things such as

• Fundraising and grant-seeking

• Banks and other financial institutions
• Community loan funds and lending circles
• Access to capital and investment funding
• Government loans and program funda
• Cooperatives and other forms of investment
• Policies and guidelines related to finance lending and reporting.

INFRASTRUCTURE is part of the resources needed to be effective in community development and

includes such obvious things as:

• Physical buildings and structures

• Transportation and access
 • Communication systems
• Electrical, hydro, sewage, garbage and heating

In the current world, we have been seeing some problems happen in the countries, those hit to
developing countries mostly. People encounter:

• Social justice
• Low-income generating
• Limited access to medical health services
• Lack of food security
• Land grabbing from the high-ranking official or billionaire tycoons in the society.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS
REPUBLIC ACT 7279

“Urban Development and Housing Act of 1992.” RA 7279 is an appropriate piece of legislation.
• It provides for the implementation of a “comprehensive and continuing” Urban
Development and Housing Program
• The aims of which are to “uplift the conditions of the underprivileged and homeless citizens
in urban areas and in resettlement areas by making available to them decent housing at
affordable cost, basic services, and employment opportunities” and to “adopt workable
policies to regulate and direct urban growth and expansion towards a dispersed urban net
and more balanced urban-rural interdependence”.

However, community empowerment and livelihood programs are clearly not central strategies as
envisioned by the law, which expectedly focused on the following areas:
• Land use, inventory, acquisition, and disposition
• Socialized housing procedures
• Resettlement
• The community mortgage program
• Program implementation
• Funding