President Michelle Bachelet celebrates the advent of the Housing Ministry’s “Quiero mi Barrio” (I Love my Neighborhood) program with residents from 22 municipal districts in Santiago

The Housing and Urban Development Ministry has pledged 50 billion pesos (US$71 million) in addition to the existing 850,000 UF (US$31 million) in funding to improve housing in 2015 during the first phase of the “Quiero mi Barrio” program which was announced by President Bachelet as one of the measures in her Government program.

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, chaired the “Mejores Barrios para Santiago” (Better neighborhoods for Santiago) meeting today in which 22 contracts were signed, paving the way for the “Quiero mi Barrio” program to get underway in various districts of the capital. The Housing and Urban Development Minister, Paulina Saball; the Housing Undersecretary, Jaime Romero; the mayors of the 22 municipal districts and hundreds of residents and community leaders were also present at the meeting.

During the meeting the Housing Ministry officially presented the project portfolios for urban development and improvements to public spaces which were prioritized by local residents, working alongside teams from their local municipalities and the Housing Ministry. The projects

cover more than 10,000 homes in total and will improve living standards for over 52,000 residents, with an investment in excess of 14 billion pesos (US$20 million).

President Bachelet welcomed the local residents to the meeting, emphasizing that “it is of paramount importance to us that local residents are able to decide what should be improved in their local area, because our neighborhoods are the places where we spend most of our lives, where we find our friends and our support networks.”

President Bachelet described the “Quiero mi Barrio” program as “one of my favorites” and explained that “we don’t want to offer the traditional type of support, where a group of professionals decide which projects will be carried out. We want local families themselves to decide which projects they want. This is why the support for social organizations provided by the program is so important, strengthening neighborhood committees (juntas de vecinos) and other community organizations.”

The Housing Minster, Paulina Saball, noted that the program is of great importance to municipalities and residents throughout Chile and she thanked the President for the opportunity to lead the program. “At the Housing Ministry we are very proud and honored to direct this program, which was launched during President Bachelet’s first Government and is now being revived and implemented together with local residents.”

“It has not been an easy year for us, what with the earthquake and the flooding, but through the “Quiero mi Barrio” program we have learned that the best public policies are created by working with local residents and community leaders. And as a Ministry, this is what we try to do every day,” she said.