HAVANA (Reuters) - After Hurricane Irma wrought havoc on Havana's
decrepit buildings and killed four in building collapses there, city
authorities held a rare media briefing to stress they were prioritising solving
the capital's longstanding housing needs.
A quarter of buildings in the Cuban city are in "bad or
regular" shape, according to the provincial housing authority, due largely
to a punishing tropical climate, lack of adequate maintenance and passage of
time.
Some Havana residents complained Irma would not have been as deadly if
authorities had addressed their housing needs, a criticism authorities
rejected.
Euclides Santos, in charge of Havana housing, told a small group of
foreign reporters the city had put a strategy in place in 2012 to repair
housing as well as provide new homes even if lack of resources made it hard to
fulfil its goals.
"We have delivered 10,000 or so homes so far to people in shelters
which means the programme is achieving results," he said on Friday, noting
the city had nearly doubled annual spending on construction in that time to
around 185 million Cuban pesos, equivalent to some $7.7 million.
Some Cubans had been waiting in communal shelters for more than 20
years at the start of the programme, said Santos, pointing to the economic
crisis Cuba went through after the fall of the Soviet Union. The country has
also suffered from the decades-long U.S. trade embargo.
Havana had focussed first on providing homes for those Cubans, then for
those who had been waiting 15-19 years. Now it was looking to resolve housing
needs of those who had been waiting 10-14 years.
"There is a strategy to reduce the time families have to spend in
these places," Santos said, adding that around 7,000 people were residing
in Havana's 109 shelters.
Families have little privacy in the shelters, where flimsy walls or
even washing lines are often used to crudely divide the units. Many Cubans say
they would rather risk their lives staying in their crumbling homes than move
to one.
Others say they would prefer to remain in existing homes in the city
centre, even though they are falling apart, rather than move to new houses they
complain are shoddily built and out of town.
The city's aim had been to build 3,000 homes per year, which would have
solved 80-90 percent of Havana's housing needs by 2020, Santos said. However, a
lack of resources meant it had only managed to build between 2,200 and 2,300
homes per year so far.
With shipments of cheap oil from Venezuela reduced and Cuba's exports
down, the cash-strapped island nation has had to cut imports over the past two
years. Irma added to those woes.
While the eye of the hurricane did not reach Havana, tropical-storm
force winds and heavy rains of its outer bands, as well as a storm surge,
lashed its buildings. Nearly 200 were completely destroyed.
Two brothers were killed in densely packed Canter Havana when a wall fell
on their flat.
Santos said authorities had urged them to evacuate the building which
they knew was in bad shape. The actual owner of the flat had already been given
a new home and they were squatting there, he said.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by David
Gregorio)
Comments
Post a Comment