New policy helps upgrade houses for those in need hinh anh 1Poor households will continued supported for building and upgrading houses (Photo: Vietnam Bank for Social Policies)
The Prime Minister has issued a decision on housing support policies for impoverished households living below the poverty line for 2011-2015, targeting about 311,000 rural families.

Beneficiaries are those listed in the poverty line delimitation in Decision 09/2011/QD-TTg dated January 30, 2011 and include those with an unsettled, broken or dilapidated house without the ability to upgrade it and who have yet to be supported by any State programmes or organisations.

Families that have received housing assistance from other programmes and policies will also get support if their houses have collapsed or are at risk of collapsing due to disasters such as floods, storms, earthquakes and fires.

Those who received aid anywhere between eight years ago and October 1, 2015 and own a degraded house will also be supported.

According to the decision, households living in wards, towns or cities with their main livelihoods in agriculture, forestry or fishery sectors will be targets of programme support.

Priority will be given to families in extreme difficulty and those from ethnic minority groups, frequently disaster-affected areas and exceptionally impoverished villages and districts.

Beneficiary households will have access to preferential loans up to 25 million VND (1,147 USD) each to build or upgrade their homes.-VNA
VNA