SHELTER IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM FOR THE URBAN POOR

investors. Loans will be used to provide housing for families earning below the A.I.D. poverty line in the context of a coordinated development framework. The National Savings and Loan Bank (BNAP) will be the primary implementing agency. Approximately 4,000 loans, equally divided between suburban Asuncion and secondary cities and towns, will be offered. BNAP will channel loans through the Institute for Housing and Urban Affairs; savings and loan associations; credit union cooperatives supported by the Central National Credit Union; and the Municipal Development Institute. These intermediaries will seek eligible families, prepare the loan plans and shelter specifications, and act as mortage/loan servicing agencies for BNAP after completion of the project. Housing solutions will be developed in terms of the paying capacity of beneficiaries. To this end, efforts will be made to identify solutions affordable by the poor in terms of existing land, urbanization, and construction costs. Such solutions will include construction of shelter houses on individually owned lots; housing loans for serviced sanitary core units (with options for additional space); and home improvement loans to expand or upgrade existing structures or connect them to existing infrastructure. Technical assistance funds will be provided to assist BNAP and its client institutions develop inter-institutional coordination through the establishment of project selection criteria. BNAP will also review the developers" funding proposals and will be co-responsible with the developers for project monitoring. Finally, a Housing and Urban Development Committee (HUDC), composed of representatives of shelter, infrastructure and urban development agencies, will be established under the aegis of the GOP"s National Planning Office. HUDC will provide a forum for inter-institutional discussion of shelter issues and will lay the basis for development of a GOP national housing policy.