420 homes delivered in 6 months, from a total of $ 215 million aimed at housing

Six months after the earthquake, most of the funds raised by the Solidarity Act have been earmarked for housing programs in the affected areas. The greatest flow of money came between July 22 and October 10, when the housing investment soared from $ 13 million to $ 215 million, according to the Ministry of Finance.

However, housing delivery is not keeping the pace. Until last week 420 new homes (318 built in the owner´s lands and 102 in urbanized areas by the government) were delivered to the affected families, according to a summary of the Technical Secretariat of Reconstruction. Its holder Carlos Bernal estimated -in his report to the Assembly on August 1- that 103,804 homes must be built.

“Here I sleep, look how I am,” said a depressed Victoria, lying on a worn mattress placed on a wooden base in the doorway of the house of her daughter Jessenia, 31, in an unsafe building and inhabited by a dozen families that lost their homes.

“This property was ready to be demolished, but I did not allow it because I would remain on the street,” claims Jessenia, eight months pregnant, from Tarqui, in the ground zero.