Emergency Housing Plan: almost all of the 260,000 homes committed to have already been assigned a subsidy
The Housing and Urban Development Minister emphasized the progress of the strategy that has already delivered 50,000 homes, ten months after its implementation. Another 133,000 are on the way.
Housing and Urban Development Minister Carlos Montes has provided an update on the progress of the Emergency Housing Plan, which corresponds to the March 2022 to April 2023 period. He stressed that, of the goal to deliver 260,000 housing solutions during this period of government, 259,038 units have already been assigned a subsidy.
Minister Montes explained that “we have 50,317 houses completed and delivered, out of a total of 260,000. We have already achieved 19.4% of the target. That is the level we are at. What are the wider goals, to give you an idea? By March, we have to deliver 260,000. This is what President Boric promised.”
The minister also indicated that 133,855 homes are under construction, while 74,866 have been approved and construction is close to getting under way. This means that, to the date that the report was issued, 259,038 homes have been assigned a subsidy, including the total number of finished housing solutions, those under construction and those with approval to begin.
“This report will be provided periodically. We would like it to be a kind of monthly index of economic activity (IMACEC) on how the Emergency Housing Plan is progressing, which will allow the public to evaluate how we are getting on. We want families to know what is happening, so that they are sure that work is being done on what families need and expect, which is, above all, quality housing in very good condition,” the housing minister explained.
The Emergency Housing Plan was presented by President Gabriel Boric in July 2022. It is an urban housing strategy developed by the Housing and Urban Development Ministry (MINVU) to urgently address the need for housing in Chile, which is estimated to be close to 650,000 units. Among its main objectives is to recover the central role of the State in housing planning and management. It plans to deliver 260,000 homes by March 2026, which would cover at least 40% of the projected housing need.
The plan also seeks to diversify the ways in which families access housing, incorporating new areas into the MINVU housing policy, such as the Housing and Urban Services (SERVIU) Direct Building System, the Housing for Workers Program, the Public Housing for Fair Price Rental Program and the Self-Construction and Industrialization Program. It also aims to accelerate the processes to reduce waiting times for families to receive their homes by strengthening the public Land Bank, which makes land available for the construction of housing projects with state support.
Other measures promoted are the Miscellaneous Law, which expedites various procedures, such as allowing works to start on submitting a Road Impact Mitigation Report (IMIV), a procedure that takes an average 120 days, as well as approving the technical regulations needed to standardize industrial housing, thus having “industrialized type housing” pre-approved by SERVIU, allowing construction to start immediately.
Operation to evict houses in San Pedro de La Paz
Minister Montes also referred to the eviction operation that took place this morning in the Prais I and II housing complex in San Pedro de La Paz. The complex had been taken over since Friday night by persons unrelated to the families that stand to benefit from the project.
The housing minister condemned what had happened and stated, “we want to be very clear and to the point. This is something we will not accept. That a group of people in need comes and takes over the homes of other families that have been assigned them, as well as the human rights organizations that had applied to the ministry and followed the regulations. And these people come and take them with axes and knives. The truth is that this is not right, and we are not going to accept it. The Interior Ministry and public security forces explained what happened this morning, which was an eviction based on requests make on Friday, because we have been following this up since Friday.”
The minister also indicated that “we are working to build more homes to meet the needs. The government has proposed 260,000 solutions for a country that has 650,000 homeless people. But we are making progress. We are improving the regular pathway to accessing housing, and we are telling families that it is not right for them to take over the homes of other families who have worked for a long time to obtain them.”
Minister Montes stated that a report will now be made on the damage caused to the homes in order to estimate a new delivery date for the families that stand to benefit.