'Even faster' to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses - Part 1: Resolutely removing obstacles

"Reinforcement" for sustainable poverty reduction results

With the determination in the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister and the speed in implementation of ministries, branches and localities, the Program to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide has achieved very positive results; the number of newly built and repaired houses handed over or started construction increases day by day.

According to information from the Ministry of Ethnic Minorities and Religions, as of April 11, 2025, the whole country has supported the elimination of 195,068 temporary and dilapidated houses; of which 93,370 houses were inaugurated and 101,698 new houses were started.

As of March 10, 2025, the whole country has supported the elimination of 121,638 temporary and dilapidated houses; of which more than 65,000 houses have been inaugurated, and more than 56,000 houses have been newly constructed. Thus, within 1 month (March 10 - April 11), the whole country has supported 73,430 houses; of which nearly 28,400 houses have been inaugurated and handed over to poor households, the rest are being urgently completed.

Minister of Ethnic Minorities and Religions Dao Ngoc Dung performs the handover ceremony of new houses to ethnic minority households in Thoi Lai district, Can Tho city in the Program to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses.

Perhaps, an important motivation that urges the entire political system and the whole society to join hands to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide is to "reinforce" the achievement of sustainable poverty reduction. In reality, there are many households that are having difficulty escaping poverty as well as households at risk of falling back into poverty due to a lack of housing quality index, mainly in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.

Data from the results of the survey and review of poor and near-poor households in 2024, approved by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (formerly) in Decision No. 217/QD-BLDTBXH dated February 4, 2025, clearly shows this situation. Specifically, according to the review results, by the end of 2024, the country will have 599,608 poor households, of which 168,134 will be poor due to a lack of housing quality indicators according to the multidimensional poverty criteria for the period 2021 - 2025.

The number of poor households lacking housing quality indicators is concentrated in areas with a large ethnic minority population. Of which, the Northern Midlands and Mountains region has 76,224 households; the North Central and Central Coast regions have 44,668 households; the Central Highlands has 22,542 households; and the Mekong Delta has 14,592 households.

The number of poor households lacking housing quality index is at risk of continuing to increase because the number of near-poor households also lack this index. Data in Decision No. 217/QD-BLDTBXH shows that by the end of 2024, the country will have 70,456 near-poor households lacking housing quality index. Of which, the Northern Midlands and Mountains region has 18,100 near-poor households lacking housing quality index; the North Central and Central Coast region has 18,863; the Central Highlands has 10,954 households; and the Mekong Delta has 15,594 households.

Attending the inauguration ceremony and handover of houses to disadvantaged ethnic minority households in Tra Vinh on April 8, 2025, Minister of Ethnic Minorities and Religions Dao Ngoc Dung - Deputy Head of the Central Steering Committee for the elimination of temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide, shared that it is impossible to say that one cannot escape poverty without having a house. According to Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, "settling down is the key to a happy career"; having a place to live and work in peace, to go home and eat in the morning and at night, will make a family warm and happy.

Localities need to be decisive and flexible in creating land funds for implementation, thereby speeding up the progress of eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses.

Focus on removing land problems

With the efforts of the entire political system and the joint efforts of the whole society, the goal of completely eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide by October 31, 2025 is feasible. However, in many localities, especially in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, there are still problems that need to be resolved promptly.

According to current regulations, a basic condition for support in eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses is that, first of all, poor households who are beneficiaries must have residential land and a certificate of land use rights (red book). However, there are still many ethnic minority households that do not have residential land; in addition, many households have land but have not been granted a red book.

For example, in Di Linh (Lam Dong), according to the report of the district People's Committee, in 2025, there are 184 households in the district in need of support to remove temporary and dilapidated houses. Based on current regulations, only 24/184 households are eligible for support; the remaining 88 households have residential land but do not have red books, 65 households only have agricultural land books and the remaining households do not meet both of the above conditions.

This is also one of the main reasons why accessing preferential credit loans under Decree No. 28/2022/ND-CP from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies is not favorable.

According to the report of the State Bank of Vietnam at the National Conference summarizing ethnic work in 2024 and deploying tasks in 2025 (held on December 30, 2024), it is expected that by the end of 2025, the outstanding loans at the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies according to Decree No. 28/2022/ND-CP will be about 3,800 billion VND, only reaching 19% compared to the plan set out in the National Target Program 1719 (19,727 billion VND).

One of the reasons identified by the State Bank of Vietnam is that in the process of implementing preferential housing credit loans, some localities no longer have or have not yet arranged residential land funds to allocate to households; or the land is mainly agricultural land, has not yet converted its purpose of use, and has not yet issued red books to people.

After the third meeting of the Central Steering Committee on the implementation of the elimination of temporary and dilapidated houses nationwide (held on March 10, 2025), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assigned the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to guide localities to remove these obstacles. Urgently implementing the Prime Minister's direction, on April 15, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment issued Document No. 1066/BNNMT-QLDD guiding localities to arrange land for housing construction for households with difficulties in housing land.

A notable point in this guideline is that the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment recommends that localities review and prioritize land allocation for households with difficulties in land use in the form of land allocation without auctioning land use rights; exempt and reduce land use fees according to the provisions of Articles 124 and 157 of the 2024 Land Law.

At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment also requested localities to review the land area of ​​agricultural and forestry farm origin to recognize land use rights for people who are using land (including residential land) with agricultural and forestry farm papers before July 1, 2004; or reclaim land according to the provisions of the Land Law to allocate to people without residential land according to regulations.

The guidance from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment will help localities remove the "bottleneck" in allocating residential land and granting red books to households eligible for housing support policies. What is necessary now is that based on the guidance from the Central Government, localities need to be decisive and flexible in creating land funds for implementation, thereby speeding up the process of eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses as required by the Prime Minister.

In Instruction No. 1066/BNNMT-QLDD dated April 15, 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment proposed that, in the process of arranging land for housing construction for households with difficulties in housing land, localities need to direct all levels and functional branches to carry out land procedures (such as land division, land registration, new issuance or exchange of land use right certificates) according to a simplified process and without collecting fees. For agricultural land in residential areas, agricultural land in the same plot of land with residential land or non-agricultural land that is not residential land of households and individuals in accordance with district-level land use planning, localities need to have policies to encourage people to carry out procedures to change land use purpose to residential land and be exempted from land use fees when changing land use purpose according to the provisions of law to promptly build houses.

(To be continued... )

Son Hao

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/than-toc-hon-nua-xoa-nha-tam-nha-dot-nat-bai-1-quyet-liet-thao-go-vuong-mac-102250418115728901.htm