image source: Gawad Kalinga Pilipinas (http://gk1world.com/ph)

image source: Gawad Kalinga Pilipinas (http://gk1world.com/ph)

In late October, I was fortunate to attend a roundtable entitled: Building Integrated Communities: Lessons Learned from the Philippines, presented by the Canadian Urban Institute in collaboration with Gawad Kalinga (GK) Canada and Ryerson University School of Urban & Regional Planning. The keynote speaker at the event, Tony Meloto, discussed how ordinary citizens can effect profound and lasting change in both their local community and country.

Tony himself is a model of this. In 1995, he founded the GK to address the issues of urban poverty and lack of affordable housing in the Philippines. Inspired to help the urban poor in his own community, Tony petitioned landowners to donate their land to create more housing for the poor. The first community supported by the GK built 300 homes on donated land, now there are over half a million homes in over 2,000 communities throughout the country.

Not only has the GK provided “land for the landless, homes for the homeless, and food for the hungry,” they found that investing in the community has financial rewards as well. As a result of the new homes, land value in the neighbourhood and surrounding areas has increased with landowners eagerly donating their land. With support from community agencies, governments and private sector, the GK has established a land banking system and community mortgage program to provide security and sustainability to their projects. In addition, land recipients are encouraged to work for their land creating employment and a better life for their families.

What we can learn from GK

The GK movement is successful because it takes a holistic approach integrating housing, education, volunteerism, sustainability, food sufficiency and livelihood training. It encourages community members to be active agents of change and designers of their own community. Whether we are trying out participatory budgeting in a small municipality or collaborating in the design of a new housing complex to be universally accessible, the GK example teaches us that individuals have power to create change and bring affordable housing to their community.

For us in the housing sector, this example also raises suggestive questions: in what ways can we work to be more integrated, sustainable and participatory? How can we be active agents of change in our own communities?