A Safer Home for Slum Dwellers in Metro Manila

Build Change completed our first retrofit, the home of the winner of the home improvement lottery, Luningning Avelino! The Certificate of Completion was awarded to Luningning’s family on September 6^th. Luningning said she is grateful for Build Change’s assistance in helping her family to improve the safety of their home.

We have identified two initial recipients for our “Futurefit Loan”, which is a combination of home retrofit and expansion of a home-based small business, typically room rentals. The homeowners are currently processing the documentary requirements; contract signing will follow as soon as the requirements are completed. Loan repayments will begin immediately after signing the contract.

Build Change has also issued loans to seven homeowners under our “Pay What You Can Loan”. This loan program is targeted to families who do not qualify for the Futurefit loan but are still willing to contribute financially to retrofit their home; this does not cover home-based business expansion. Loan recipients are asked to contribute what they can afford based on the result of their financial assessment, with Build Change subsidizing the rest. However, if the loan recipient misses a payment, Build Change will not subsidize that payment as a penalty, and they must pay the full amount. Repayments will be weekly for the first two months, then monthly thereafter. Two months after we issued our first loan, repayment rates are at 100%, with 0% portfolio at risk (PAR)! At present, retrofit of one house is almost completed while six are ongoing. We have also facilitated training on disaster resistant construction practices to 19 builders, and on managing the construction process for seven homeowners. The loan recipients are thankful for the assistance extended by Build Change. One homeowner who is a single mother mentioned that the retrofit fulfills her dream to provide a safe home for her children.  

We also held a one-day construction fiesta in July which was well-received by the homeowners from Pembo, Makati City. It was an open house event in a Science Fair style with interactive stations explaining different concepts of safe construction.

Build Change will continue to have discussions with the government, microfinance and other financing institutions, as well as philanthropic organizations, who can help us scale the program in the coming months. We are really excited to be reaching out to and working with more homeowners and help them secure a safe home for their family.

Build Change continues to work on our first retrofit, the home of the winner of the home improvement lottery, Luningning. We are almost done working on the first story of Luningning’s home where her family houses a small sari-sari store (basic necessities store) which serves as a source of the family’s income. Luningning and her family are happy to see the improvements in their home and said that they now feel safer and prepared for an earthquake.  In May, Build Change released the second tranche of funds to Luningning which will be used to start working on the second story of her house. Our engineers continue to regularly monitor the construction process and provide supervision to the builders working on the project.  

Our team has also completed the technical assessments of 41 houses to evaluate their suitability for retrofit, as well as the financial assessments of 12 homeowners as potential loan grantees. We will be issuing loans to two homeowners in the succeeding weeks.

We are also excited to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Makati, which covers the barangay where we are currently working. Aside from providing the legal framework for the program, the City is considering to relax some of the permitting and inspection requirements as a pilot measure for the retrofit program.

Build Change recently facilitated a week-long exercise with the City’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) to sensitize the different departments to the retrofit project and try to streamline permitting and inspection processes. The participants include the City’s Engineering Department, Office of the Building Official, Social Welfare Department, and League of Barangays (neighborhoods). We brought the participants to different communities in Makati to look at typical houses and afterwards asked them to do some role playing – first as Build Change, where we asked them to put together a retrofit design referencing the houses they visited; and second as homeowners and city officials, where we asked them to go through a permitting application. Overall, the participants realized that most of the houses they visited are at high risk in the event of a typhoon or earthquake and recognized the importance of retrofitting existing structures before a disaster hits. One of the activity participants shared that the exercise encouraged her to further push herself knowing that the Build Change team will support them as they work towards reducing risks and vulnerabilities posed by natural hazards.

Build Change is really excited to be able to further strengthen its partnership with the key players in the community which will help to ensure the success of the retrofit program. We believe that this is an important ingredient to help build the resilience of the people and their communities.