More than 500,000 houses have been built since mid 2011 under the Venezuelan government’s mass housing building construction program.
Launched by former president Hugo Chavez to tackle the South American country’s shortage of affordable housing, the program has the ambitious aim of building three million new homes by 2019.
The Great Housing Mission also seeks to provide housing for all those made homeless by the heavy rains of 2010. Further, low income families receive heavy subsidies from the government to help them pay for their houses, and those living on less than the minimum wage receive their new homes for free.
Authorities report that 511,040 public and private sector houses have been built so far under the Great Housing Mission, more than one-sixth of the total goal. Thgis year, 62% of public sector houses were built by grassroots groups such as communal councils.
Calculations indicate that at the current rate of building, the goal of three million new homes by 2019 will not be met. However, program authorities report that a huge number of houses are being built, and say the next aim of one million homes built will be reached relatively quickly.
2014 to be year of 'more revolution'
On December 26, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro committed to handing new houses to the last group of 700 families made homeless by heavy rains by February.
Maduro also declared that 2014 would be “a year of more socialist revolution, of the people, of true democracy”. He confirmed that a new stage of his Street Government initiative would tour the country to develop key government policies.
Maduro said the government would put forward Diosdado Cabello for another term as president of the National Assembly. Cabello is also the Vice President of the government’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
[Reprinted from Venezuela Analysis.]
