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 Puerto Vallarta Real Estate | November 2006 
Officials: Gov´t Housing Too Cramped
 El Universal
| | A slum quarter in Mexico City. |
The capital´s ombudsman calls tiny government- sponsored apartments violation of human rights.
The head of Mexico City´s governmental Human Rights Commission said on Saturday that government-supported apartments measuring as little as 35 square meters (375 square feet) violate human rights.
Such tiny apartments - about one-seventh the size of an average U.S. home - are too small to allow a family to live decently and foment domestic violence, said Emilio Álvarez, president of the government-funded commission.
"The design of public policies based on these standards violates people´s most fundamental rights to housing," said Álvarez, who criticized apartments measuring up to 45 square meters (485 square feet).
He said that packing families into such apartments forced youths onto the streets and contributed to domestic violence, especially in poorer neighborhoods.
"Those who leave school because of poverty don´t have any option of staying at home," he said in a commission press statement.
Mexico City housing law stipulates that residents have a right to "dignified and decent housing," but does not specify what size apartment meets that criteria.
About one-quarter of the city´s 8.7 million people live in low-income housing. In the past, most low-income projects averaged around 48 square meters (515 square feet), enough for two small bedrooms, a kitchen, bath and living room.
But high land prices combined with low wages have forced developers - who often receive financing or funding from the government - to design smaller units in order to meet the demand of poorer city residents.
Nationwide, Mexico´s minimum wage is about 47 pesos (US$4.30) per day and the average worker makes about 2.5 times that amount.
Those without access to low-income housing often live in still-more crowded conditions with relatives. In some areas, people hungry for housing have built colonies of scrap-wood and tarpaper shacks along railroad rights of way or in nature preserves. |
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