Decision No. 33/2015/QD-TTg on housing support policies for households living below the poverty line during the period from 2011 to 2015 (the Housing Support Program for Poor Households under Decision No. 167/2008/QD-TTg, Phase 2)

Pursuant to …;

VRegarding housing support policies for poor households according to the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 (housing support program for poor households under Decision No. 167/2008/QĐ-TTg phase 2) Article 24Decision No. 167/2008/QĐ-TTg phase 2

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Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the Law on Housing dated November 29, 2005;

Pursuant to Decision No. 2127/QĐ-TTg dated November 30, 2011 of the Government approving the national housing strategy until 2020 and vision until 2030;

At the proposal of the Minister of Construction,

The Government promulgates this Decision regarding housing support policies for poor households according to the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 (housing support program for poor households under Decision No. 167/2008/QĐ-TTg phase 2).

Article 1. Objectives and Principles of Implementation

1. Objective: To provide housing support for approximately 311,000 poor households in rural areas (as reported by localities), ensuring safe and stable housing, gradually improving living standards, contributing to sustainable poverty reduction and eradication.

2. Principles of Implementation

a) Support provided to each household; ensuring democracy, transparency, fairness, and accountability based on laws and state policies; adapting to customs and traditions of each ethnic group, region, and locality, preserving the cultural identity of each ethnic group; aligning with practical conditions and integrated with economic and social development plans of each locality; contributing to the new rural construction program;

b) Mobilizing funds from multiple sources to implement the program, combining state and community efforts. Providing support according to the principle: the state supports through preferential loans for building or repairing houses, communities assist, and households organize the construction of their own houses;

c) After receiving support, households must build new houses or repair and upgrade existing houses, ensuring a minimum usable area of 24 square meters (for single individuals without support, houses can be smaller but not less than 18 square meters) and "3 hard" (solid floor, solid frame-wall, solid roof); the house's lifespan must be at least 10 years. Houses must ensure safety during typhoons, storms, and tornadoes;

d) Households supported for housing (including new construction or repair and upgrading of houses) shall be granted certificates of land use rights, ownership of houses, and other attached assets according to the law on land (if requested) and may only transfer these rights after fully repaying the policy bank loan (principal and interest).

Article 2. Target Groups and Conditions for Housing Support

1. Recipients

Households eligible for housing construction support under this Decision must be poor households according to the poverty standard stipulated in Decision No. 09/2011/QĐ-TTg dated January 30, 2011 of the Prime Minister on issuing the poverty and near-poverty standards applicable for the period 2011-2015, listed in the poor household registry managed by the People's Commune Councils at the time this Decision takes effect, and must have been independent households for at least five years prior to the effective date of this Decision.

c) For some special areas, the participation period of civilian workers may be earlier or later than the above periods as specified by the Minister of Defense.

a) Not having a house or already having a house that is extremely temporary, dilapidated, leaking, at risk of collapse, and unable to improve the house themselves;

b) Not having received housing support from other state programs or political-social organizations;

c) In cases where they have already received housing support from other housing support programs, they must fall into one of the following categories: houses that have collapsed or severely damaged, at risk of collapse due to natural disasters such as typhoons, floods, earthquakes, landslides, fires, but lacking funds to repair or rebuild them. They have received housing support from other housing support programs for at least eight years before the effective date of this Decision, but now their houses are damaged, leaking, and at risk of collapse.

3. The following cases do not qualify as target groups for support under this Decision:

a) Households eligible for housing support under Decision No. 1776/QĐ-TTg dated November 21, 2012 of the Prime Minister on approving the Program for resettling residents in disaster-prone, particularly difficult, border, island, spontaneous migration, and special-use forest areas for the period 2013-2015 and orientation until 2020;

b) Households eligible for housing support under Decision No. 1151/QĐ-TTg dated August 26, 2008 of the Prime Minister on supplementing investment projects (phase 2) under the Program for constructing residential clusters and houses in flood-prone areas in the Mekong Delta;

c) Households eligible for housing support under Decision No. 22/2013/QĐ-TTg dated April 26, 2013 of the Prime Minister on supporting war veterans with housing;

d) Households eligible for housing support under Decision No. 716/QĐ-TTg dated June 14, 2012 of the Prime Minister on piloting solutions to support poor households to improve safe housing conditions and respond to floods in the North Central Coast and Central Coast regions;

e) Households eligible for housing support under Decision No. 48/2014/QĐ-TTg dated August 28, 2014 of the Prime Minister on policies to support poor households in building houses to prevent typhoons and floods in the Central Region.

Article 3. Scope of Application

The housing support policy for poor households according to the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 shall be applied to households that fall within the target group as defined in this Decision and reside in rural areas or in villages, hamlets, villages, communes, wards, phums, socs (collectively referred to as villages) directly under towns, townships, or communes directly under districts, cities under provinces but primarily engage in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.

Article 4. Priority Order for Support

Priority support shall be given in the following order:

1. Households with particularly difficult circumstances (elderly, single, disabled).

2. Households belonging to ethnic minority groups.

3. Households residing in areas frequently affected by natural disasters.

4. Households residing in particularly difficult villages.

5. Households residing in administrative units located in difficult areas.

6. Households residing in poor districts as defined in Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP dated December 27, 2008 of the Government.

7. Remaining households.

1. Sources of Funding

a) Preferential loans

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies shall provide preferential loans to households eligible for borrowing as stipulated in this Decision. The funding source for these loans will be provided by the central government budget at 50% of the total loan amount for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, while the remaining 50% will be raised by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies;

b) Funds raised from the "Poverty Reduction Fund" by the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations at all levels, which coordinate with the community and businesses to raise funds. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry also coordinates with businesses to support the "Poverty Reduction Fund" and contribute to the Program;

c) Household funds raised from families and clans;

d) Funds integrated from other programs and objectives.

The State budget compensates the interest rate differential for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to implement the policy as follows:

a) For localities that have not yet achieved balanced budgets and the province of Quang Ngai, the central government budget will ensure 100% of the interest rate subsidy for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies;

b) For localities with a distribution ratio of revenue below 50% to the central government budget; the central government will support 50%, and the local government will ensure 50% of the interest rate subsidy between the average bond interest rate guaranteed by the government raised by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and the actual loan interest rate of the program and the average actual loan balance (calculated using the product method) of the program;

c) For the remaining localities, the local government will ensure 100% of the interest rate subsidy between the average bond interest rate guaranteed by the government raised by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and the actual loan interest rate of the program and the average actual loan balance (calculated using the product method) of the program.

3. Settlement of Interest Rate Subsidies

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies is responsible for calculating and determining the average interest rate differential and the average actual loan balance of each locality. At the end of the fiscal year, the branches of the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies in the localities mentioned in Point b and Point c Clause 2 Article 5 will calculate the interest rate subsidy level of the local government budget. Based on the interest rate subsidy level of the local government budget, the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies will compile and report to the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to determine the total interest rate subsidy level from the central government budget for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies.

4. Loan Amounts

Households eligible for borrowing as defined in this Decision may borrow up to 25 million VND per household from the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to build or repair housing. The loan interest rate is 3% per annum; the loan term is 15 years, including a grace period of 5 years. The maximum repayment period is 10 years starting from the sixth year, with a minimum annual repayment of 10% of the total borrowed amount.

5. Loan Methods

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies provides loans in accordance with the regulations of the State Bank of Vietnam.

In addition to the loan amount, households participating in the program must contribute and mobilize other sources of capital from the community to construct or repair housing in compliance with the specified scale and quality.

6. Disbursement of Loans

The People's Committee of the commune shall verify the progress of housing construction for poor households in the area and submit a consolidated report to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies;

The Vietnam Bank for Social Policies shall disburse 100% of the loan amount according to regulations for households building new houses after completing the foundation and for households repairing or renovating existing houses after completing 30% of the work volume.

7. Procedures for Borrowing

a) Review and Approve Lists of Households Receiving Support

Villages organize reviews of eligible households and prioritize them according to regulations, ensuring democracy, transparency, fairness, and clarity, and submit lists of reviewed households to the People's Committee of the commune;

The People's Committee of the commune reviews and verifies the list of poor households eligible for housing support and reports it to the People's Committee of the district for consolidation and reporting to the People's Committee of the province to serve as the basis for formulating and approving the Housing Support Plan for Poor Households according to the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 in the area.

b) Housing Construction Funds

The People's Committee of the province sends the list of poor households eligible for housing support to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to facilitate lending;

Management, allocation, payment, and settlement of funding sources shall follow the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance;

For loan funds, households shall follow the procedures and guidelines for borrowing provided by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies;

For funds raised from the "Poverty Reduction Fund" and other voluntary contributions in the area, the Vietnam Fatherland Front at all levels shall cooperate with the People's Committee at the same level to support households eligible for assistance.

c) Implementation of Housing Construction

The People's Committee at the commune level shall direct, guide, inspect, urge households to construct and repair houses in accordance with the area and quality requirements set forth in this Decision, and mobilize households to organize construction or repair of their houses themselves. For households in difficult circumstances (elderly, single, disabled...) who cannot build on their own, the People's Committee at the commune level shall direct the Communist Youth Union of the locality to organize construction for these groups.

Article 6. Management Costs

Each province and centrally governed city shall allocate funds from the local budget to manage, organize, and implement policies (at provincial, district, and commune levels) with a maximum amount not exceeding 0.5% of the total loan capital from the Social Policy Bank to implement the policy as stipulated, according to this Decision.

Article 7. Timeframe and Progress

1. After this Decision takes effect, each province and centrally governed city shall conduct reviews, establish lists of poor households eligible for support in accordance with regulations; simultaneously establish and approve plans to support housing for poor households based on the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015, based on guidance documents issued by the Ministry of Construction.

2. Implement housing support for poor households based on the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 as prescribed in this Decision over six years, from 2015 to 2020, specifically as follows:

- In 2015: Develop and approve the plan;

- In 2016: Provide support to approximately 10% of the target group;

- In 2017: Provide support to approximately 20% of the target group;

- In 2018: Provide support to approximately 25% of the target group;

- In 2019: Provide support to approximately 25% of the target group;

- In 2020: Provide support to approximately 20% of the target group; conclude and evaluate the implementation results.

3. Organize conclusions, evaluations, and draw lessons from the implementation of the policy no later than three months after completing housing support for poor households.

Article 8. Implementation organization

1. Regarding central ministries and sectors

a) Ministry of Construction

- Take the lead and coordinate with relevant ministries: Planning and Investment, Finance, Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs to guide provinces and centrally governed cities in developing plans to support housing for poor households based on the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 of the respective province or city;

- Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the Social Policy Bank, and other relevant ministries and sectors, and invite the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee to inspect, urge, and monitor localities in implementing the housing support policy in accordance with the objectives and requirements; compile and report annually to the Prime Minister on the implementation results;

- Improve the Steering Committee for the Implementation of Housing Support Policies for Poor Households to take charge of directing the implementation of housing support policies for poor households based on the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015;

- Annually prepare the budget for the activities of the Steering Committee for the Implementation of Housing Support Policies for Poor Households; submit it to the Ministry of Finance for allocation of activity funds for the Steering Committee.

b) Ministry of Planning and Investment

Based on the annual registration of state budget capital plans of the Social Policy Bank, take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Construction to aggregate plans, balance, and allocate capital, subsidize interest rate differences for the Social Policy Bank in the annual budget according to this Decision.

- On the basis of the total interest rate subsidy compiled by the Social Policy Bank, the Ministry of Finance shall take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Construction to review, report to the Prime Minister on the deduction from the total interest rate subsidy from the central budget for the Social Policy Bank;

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Construction to balance and allocate capital, subsidize interest rate differences for the Social Policy Bank in a timely manner according to regulations;

- Take the lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to balance and allocate funds for the activities of the Steering Committee for the Implementation of Housing Support Policies for Poor Households based on the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 into the regular expenditure budget of the Ministry of Construction according to the annual cost budget.

d) The Ethnic Minority Committee shall guide localities in identifying particularly difficult communes; coordinate with relevant ministries, sectors, and localities to inspect the implementation of policies for ethnic minority groups.

đ) The State Bank of Vietnam shall direct the monitoring, urging, and inspection of the lending activities of the Social Policy Bank.

e) The Social Policy Bank shall develop plans for using capital and interest rate subsidy plans to be submitted for approval by the competent authority according to regulations; implement lending, recover loans, and handle risky debts according to current regulations; provide specific guidance on loan application procedures to ensure simplicity, clarity, and ease of implementation.

2. Regarding the People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities

a) Shall be responsible for establishing, approving plans, and organizing the implementation of housing support policies for poor households based on the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 within their jurisdiction, ensuring compliance with the timeframe specified in this Decision.

b) Publicize standards, target groups, and direct reviews, establish lists of poor households eligible for support within their jurisdiction; prioritize support for target groups according to regulations. Direct the establishment and approval of lists of poor households eligible for loans to build housing according to this Decision.

c) Submit the plan to support housing for poor households based on the poverty standard for the period 2011-2015 within their jurisdiction, which has been approved, to the Ministry of Construction; simultaneously send it to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank, and the Social Policy Bank within three months from the date this Decision takes effect for capital allocation and coordination in urging, inspecting, compiling, reporting to the Prime Minister.

d) Assign the organization and direction of implementing housing support policies for households living below the poverty line during the period from 2011 to 2015 to the Steering Committee for Implementing Program 167 (for localities without a Program 167 Steering Committee, assign it to the Steering Committee for Poverty Reduction Targets at all levels of the province or centrally governed city); assign the Department of Construction as the permanent agency directing the implementation of housing support policies for households living below the poverty line during the period from 2011 to 2015 as stipulated in this Decision; direct the Department of Construction to design several house models suitable for reference and selection by the public;

đ) Ensure sufficient management costs for organizing and implementing the policy as stipulated in this Decision. Direct relevant agencies and local authorities at all levels to cooperate with organizations and associations on the territory to mobilize community support and assistance for poor households to build houses;

In addition, depending on actual conditions, provinces and centrally governed cities may provide additional support from their local budgets to improve the quality of housing for household families;

e) Regularly inspect and supervise the implementation to ensure that the policy reaches each poor household facing housing difficulties; prevent waste and corruption; ensure that poor households have housing after receiving support according to the provisions of this Decision; take preventive measures against unauthorized transfer of housing;

g) Submit a monthly brief report and an annual periodic report on the results of implementation to the Ministry of Construction for consolidation and reporting to the Prime Minister;

h) Direct the preparation of a capital plan for implementing the policy (including all sources of capital), report on the progress and results of disbursement annually to the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank, and the Social Policy Bank as a basis for consolidating the loan capital plan;

3. For the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union

a) Be responsible for directing Youth League levels to promote and disseminate the policy; participate in mobilizing organizations, enterprises, and the community to support with money, construction materials, or labor days to help poor households build houses;

b) Direct Youth League levels to participate in building houses for poor households; coordinate with the People's Committee at the commune level to organize the construction of houses for vulnerable groups (elderly, single, disabled);

4. Request the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee to continue to intensify the "Day for the Poor" campaign, coordinate with the Government and local authorities at all levels, and member organizations of the Vietnam Fatherland Front to actively mobilize additional resources to support poor households in building houses; while performing the function of supervising the implementation process of housing support policies for poor households to ensure compliance with objectives and requirements;

Coordinate with the Ministry of Construction and related ministries and sectors in allocating funds raised by the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, member organizations of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (including monetary or in-kind contributions such as houses and construction materials) to localities reasonably and fairly;

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry should actively mobilize businesses to support, assist, and help poor households build houses;

Article 9. Effective Date

This Decision takes effect from October 1, 2015.

Article 10. Responsibility for Implementation

The Ministers, Heads of ministerial-level agencies, Heads of government agencies, Chairpersons of provincial People's Committees under the direct jurisdiction of the central government shall be responsible for implementing this Decision./.