Decent and affordable accommodation for all is not unattainable if government at all levels maintain purposeful tenacity in their pronouncements about giving citizens decent and affordable housing.
Rome, they say, was not built in a day; so the efforts of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, in compensating those citizens who have remained good citizens by paying their taxes should be emulated by every government.
However, the government should not only build new ones but also go extra mile in rehabilitating the ones already built and creating access roads to connect residents from every nook and corner of the state.
State governments leaving the construction of roads and maintenance for local governments, always allow room for loopholes as local governments are yet to become autonomous.
Lagos State government, on a monthly basis, makes residents who, if left alone, would not have owned homes, house owners for life on a monthly basis. This is despite that Lagos is a city where owning a home has never been a tea party going by its estimated population of about 18 million people scrambling for an estimated two million habitable housing units.
Greater percentage of housing units deficit are in Lagos and this has been worsened by the preference by housing developers to restrict their developments in the high-end market, while low-income houses are disappearing by the day.
This is why the interventionist strategy to salvage this situation started by the state government christened Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (HOMS) to avail first-time home buyers opportunity to own homes through a monthly draw that has so far produced 235 (house) winners.
The draw, which was first held last March 4, was envisaged to produce 200 homeowners monthly but in the last four months it has been able to produce 235, which, in the opinion of observers, is quite commendable.
The state governor noted at the June and fourth draw, which produced 92 first-time homeowners, that it had not been an easy task to deliver 200 housing units monthly, recalling that the draw produced 31, 36 and 76 homeowners in March, April and May respectively.
He stated the number that won homes this time around affirmed that the scheme was getting better, saying, “it’s a journey we have started, which we are ready to go all the distance.” His promise to mobilise contractors for onward development is an indication that the journey is far really but the state is ready for it.
“This is what other state governments should emulate for the affordable and decent accommodation of our dream to be realized,” he said.
Bosun Jeje, the state’s Commissioner for Housing, had earlier at a press briefing said the Fashola administration would do its best to deliver as many units as possible through the mortgage scheme, revealing that about 5,626 housing units were undergoing construction across 20 sites within the state and assured that the state would not run out of supply in the near future.
The governor charged contractors handling various housing projects for the scheme to increase their speed by, if need be, employing more workers, adding that the simultaneous construction of several housing schemes in the state should be a catalyst to create employment opportunities.
“If it’s necessary to get more shifts and more hands on deck at various sites to speed up the delivery process, then the unemployment market should be explored because I don’t see how we can comfortably say there are no job opportunities and continue to work one shift on construction sites.
We should be working two shifts of eight hours each at sites to enable us reduce construction time without compromising quality and the safety of workers at construction sites,” he said.
A close look at the HOMS website showed that the July edition of the draw is expected to offer more opportunities with the Sir Michael Otedola Estate, Epe, Ilupeju Scheme, Oba Adeboruwa Estate, Ikorodu and  Shogunro Scheme I and II set to receive new homeowners.

Lagos sets template for decent accommodation