Upon the 2nd anniversary of Typhoon Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction efforts, the Government has completed 27 bases and nearly 90% of permanent housing. More than 10,000 people have benefited from these accomplishments. In order to record the precious memories about how the government and Taiwanese society worked alongside each other in the face of disaster and grueling reconstruction efforts in the past 2 years, the Reconstruction Council is publishing the book: Rebuilding a Sustainable Homeland with Innovation and United Efforts. This book documents how the government and private sectors worked together in the process of innovating and implementing reconstruction efforts for this unprecedented disaster. They worked with the disaster victims together to build sustainable new homes. The process showcased the outstanding compassion of Taiwanese people and created an international model for post-disaster reconstruction.

Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Reconstruction Council, Dr. Chern Jenn-Chuan stated that: in addition to providing temporary shelter for disaster-struck households after the calamity, the government also provided rent subsidies, house mortgage interest subsidies, government-built housing and other diverse relocation programs for the mid-to-long term settlement of disaster victims. Of these programs, the government created a budget for permanent housing and quickly obtained land through the simplified administrative procedures of the Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Special Act. This enabled reconstruction organizations to build permanent housing and the central government, local governments, and private organizations to work together in building new homes for the disaster victims while establishing a reconstruction model of public-private partnerships. President Ma Ying-jeou and Premier Wu Den-Yih of the Executive Yuan especially instructed the Reconstruction Council to write a book on the process and results of permanent housing reconstruction, translate it into English, and widely disseminate it to the public for review and understanding of the state actions.

This book records the government's one-stop permanent housing policy. As former Premier of the Executive Yuan, Liu Chao-shiuan instructed during the 3rd working group meeting on August 27th, 2009: the mid-to-long term settlement of disaster victims should be based on permanent housing. Temporary housing will only be used to settle victims under special circumstances. Some disaster victims advocate that they should first move to temporary housing before deciding where to go in the future. On November 25th, 2009, Premier Wu stated during the 8th Reconstruction Council committee meeting that, "good locations have been provided for permanent housing. We have not completely ruled out temporary housing, but the government can not afford two sets of land, capital, human resources if we allow residents to choose whether they want to live three years in temporary housing first and then decide to move to permanent housing."

Facts prove that once various private charitable organizations built permanent housing according to the number of households they claimed responsibility for, some groups have now depleted the funds they originally raised. Thus, if these private organizations had invested these donations with the priority focused on the construction of temporary housing, it would have occupied possible locations for permanent housing bases. In addition, it would have resulted in the hindering of construction efforts for nearly 1/3 of the permanent housing units. This would not have met the actual demands and would have resulted in overall policy implementation difficulties.

The reconstruction of Xiaolin Village possesses indicative significance. On August 19th, 2009, President Ma visited the Xiaolin Village disaster victim shelter at Jiashian's Longfeng Temple to hear petitions from disaster victims. He promised that he would complete the reconstruction of Xiaolin Village during the term of his presidency. On September 11th, 2009, Premier Wu visited the Xiaolin Village disaster victims at Longfeng Temple the very next day after he took office. He made a commitment that the locations of permanent housing construction sites would be up to those affected by the disaster. If more than 50 households express willingness to relocate to a certain location, construction of permanent housing could be planned. As of now, Xiaolin Village disaster victims have been settled in Shanlin Da Ai Community (66 households), Wulipu (90 households), and also the other Xiaolin Second Village is about to be completed in August 2011 next to Shanlin Yonglin Organic Farm (120 households).

Chairman Tsai Sung Yu of the Xiaolin Village Reconstruction Development Association stated that "There would be no Xiaolin Second Village without President Ma. President Ma is willing to listen, support and encourage. The facts prove that President Ma did indeed keep his word and made good on the promise of completing the reconstruction of Xiaolin Village within his term of office.

Looking to the future, the permanent housing bases will continue to progress towards the goal of "Colorful Sustainable Communities". Secure housing will come first, as well as employment assistance. Comprehensive resources will be provided to residents with regards to employment, industry, education, culture, lifestyle, ethnicity, spirituality, and religious faith. The short-term goal is to help communities establish fundamental functionality to meet the basic needs of the residents. The mid-to-long-term goal is to aid the village to become self-reliant and develop group power in the communities so that the permanent housing bases would not just be "houses", but "homes" for the residents. In this way the organic growth of the communities would contribute to sustainable communities that would continue to develop for generations to come.

The Reconstruction Council will circulate this book to relevant units and publish it on the Internet. The book has also been translated into English in order to exchange and pass on information about Taiwan's experiences with its first public-private partnerships in the permanent housing policy model.

 

創新協力封面中文

創新協力封面英文

總統訪視龍鳳寺小林災民

吳院長訪視龍鳳寺小林災民

重建會拜訪劉前院長