Housing support for meritorious people: Problems that need to be resolved!

(Baonghean) - On April 26, 2013, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 22/2013/QD-TTg on “Supporting people with meritorious services to the revolution in housing”. To implement this decision, Nghe An province has focused on implementing it with the motto “right subjects, right regime and prescribed time”. However, after more than 3 years, many families of people with meritorious services have not yet received support money due to problems that have not been resolved promptly.

The house is finished, but the support money has not arrived yet!

In reality, it can be reaffirmed that housing support for people with revolutionary contributions is of great significance. Mr. Vo Huy Huong - Deputy Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Cua Lo Town said: “With the maximum participation of the entire political system, at the end of 2013, through 2 review steps, Cua Lo Town has compiled a list of 81 households with revolutionary contributions receiving housing support from 7/7 wards. Of which, 29 households were supported for new construction and 52 households for repair. And by 2014, the town had carried out capital disbursement procedures and basically completed housing support according to Decision 22, with a total amount of 2.22 billion VND.

During the implementation process, it is inevitable that there will be problems and shortcomings, typically when reviewing, only support for repairs is needed, but when the house is demolished, it is seriously degraded and needs to be rebuilt, so we have to be flexible in resolving it. In such cases, one of the town's ways is to proactively draw from the gratitude fund to promptly support and ensure the progress of the project. Thanks to that, up to now, all households of meritorious people who are eligible for housing support are living in solid and spacious houses."

Leaders of Yen Hop commune (Quy Hop) presented money to support housing repairs for policy beneficiaries.

However, in addition to Cua Lo town, in most of the remaining districts, cities and towns in the province, there are still many meritorious people who are eligible for housing support but have not yet received funding to build new or repair houses. The problem arises because the housing conditions are seriously degraded and unsafe during the rainy and stormy season, or according to customs (the year of birth is suitable for building a house), so some families, although not yet allocated funding, have borrowed money to repair, renovate or rebuild their houses, and thus fall into debt.

Mr. Dang Van Bai is a 1/4 disabled veteran in hamlet 4A, Ngoc Son commune (Quynh Luu), nearly 60 years old this year, still worried about his whole family living in debt. Mr. Bai said that in 2013, the staff in charge of labor - war invalids and social affairs of Ngoc Son commune informed his family that they were eligible for State support to build a house, with an amount of 40 million VND.

Although they had not received the support money, because the house was too degraded, the whole family still decided to borrow money to build a new house, and would pay later when they received the support money from the State. Everything then went according to plan, the family had a new house, but they had been waiting for the support money for a long time and still had not seen it!

Mr. Nguyen Cong Chat, Tay Hoa block, Nghi Hoa ward, (Cua Lo town) in the house supported under Decision 22 of the Prime Minister.

According to statistics, the entire Ngoc Son commune has 77 households enjoying the regime according to Decision 22 of the Prime Minister, but up to now, only 2 households have received support money to build and repair houses, the remaining 75 households are still... waiting.

Mr. Dang Minh Hoai - Deputy Head of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Quynh Luu district said: "In accordance with Decision 22 of the Prime Minister, Quynh Luu district has approved the construction of 1,054 new houses and 315 houses need to be repaired and upgraded. However, due to budget constraints, the State has only supported the construction and repair of 50 houses; the district has built 13 gratitude houses with a total cost of nearly 600 million VND; the remaining households have not received support money since 2014."

Currently, many families of meritorious people in localities across the province also have to borrow money to build and repair houses and fall into debt. Mr. Nguyen Doan Hoan (76 years old), hamlet 7, Xuan Tuong commune (Thanh Chuong) is one of 80 subjects eligible for support under Decision 22. The house was built with money saved throughout life and borrowed money, his brothers and sisters have collected everything to complete it for more than a year now but still have not received support money. Mr. Hoan said: "Hearing the announcement that I was eligible for support of 40 million VND to build a house, my wife and I discussed building a house to have a place to worship after I pass away. Now the house is finished but the debt has not been paid off because the support money from above is still nowhere to be seen."

Open way from socialization

According to statistics from the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the total number of households with revolutionary contributions who need housing support in the province is 26,846. Of which, 13,748 need to be newly built and 13,098 need to be repaired (the number of people needing this support has been assessed and agreed upon by the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs), with the total budget needed amounting to nearly 816 billion VND.

However, the first and only capital allocation to date (including the province's counterpart capital) at the end of 2013 only supported the construction and repair of houses for 1,018 households (713 new households and 305 households repaired and renovated).

Thus, it can be seen that the number of households in need of support that are eligible for Decision 22 in our province is still very large (25,828 households). The subjects in need of support are mainly the elderly, the lonely and the unable to work, and their family circumstances are very difficult.

Mr. Chu Anh Tuan - Head of Housing Department, Department of Construction said: "In light of that reality, the Provincial People's Committee assigned the Department of Construction to send reports and recommendations to the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance and other ministries and branches to promptly propose to the Government to disburse funds in a timely manner. However, up to now, most of the reply documents have pointed out the fact that the budget is limited and support policies need to be implemented long-term, in accordance with the budget capacity..."

Regarding the fact that many meritorious households, after receiving the support decision, borrowed money to build houses while not yet receiving the support money, leading to the inability to pay, according to Mr. Tuan: “In theory, borrowing money to build houses is not in accordance with the spirit of Decision 22. However, from a “human” perspective, sometimes we need to sympathize. Because Decision 22 took effect in 2013, after 4 years, many houses have seriously degraded and are uninhabitable, so it is understandable that people borrow money to repair and build. The problem is how to supplement resources to promptly support the most disadvantaged families?”

To help overcome the housing difficulties for people with meritorious services while the central budget is "stuck", according to Mr. Nguyen Dang Duong - Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs: "An important solution is that localities need to increase the mobilization of the Gratitude Fund and socialized capital sources to build new and repair houses for these people. Because in the first 6 months of 2016 alone, the whole province has supported and built new houses for 92 families with meritorious services to the revolution, with a budget of 5.98 billion VND and repaired and upgraded 100 houses with a budget of 2.55 billion VND from socialized capital".

Minh Quan - Canh Nam