Families Forced Into Tiny Housing Units
 Juan Manuel Barrera - El Universal
| | Capital families looking for a place of their own are flocking to the poorly-built lowincome housing on the city's outskirts. |
Mexico City – With real estate prices on the rise, many families are heading to new housing projects on the outskirts of the capital. But for some, their dream of owning a home has become a nightmare.
For Alfredo Becerrill Mancilla, hunger for his own place led him to move into a 30-square-meter apartment in La Trinidad one of the massive housing projects that has recently sprung up in the State of Mexico.
One of 8,000, his home consists of little more than a kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.
"With the little that we saved in Infonavit, it's what we could buy," he said, referring to the governmentbacked housing loan agency that allowed him to purchase a home of no more than US15,200.
According to Enrique Ortiz Flores, president of Habitat International, a nongovernmental agency, the minimum space requirement for a Mexican family with an average of four members is 52 square meters.
By the end of 2004, Infonovit had awarded 90,000 such properties, which were generally about 50-squaremeters. This year it expects to offer 120,000 more.
But, said Ortiz, what's being offered are mostly tiny, poorly-built homes.
Sandra Martínez Monroy, 38, regrets having bought an apartment in La Trinidad, saying she didn't receive what she expected. For example, electricity and water infrastructure for the housing project is failing to meet demand.
"They promised us a lovely villa, but the houses are cheap," she said. "We came here so we wouldn't have to pay rent in the capital since it's excessively expensive, and now we're suffering."
Mexico's Infonovit is a home loan agency that forms part of the government's social security institutions. It's financed by a 5 percent payroll tax employers pay into a special account for each worker along with collections of 2.1 million loans.
Miguel Ángel García Beltrán, secretary of urban development for the state of Mexico, said they plan to build 95,000 apartments in areas such as Zumpango, Tecamac in the State of Mexico this year. |
Vallarta Weddings
News Around the Republic of Mexico | June 2005 
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