Faster pace of construction a must to battle dirt floors in Las Tunas
LAS TUNAS – In 2019, Las Tunas fulfilled the proposed government plan for new homes. This is encouraging news that demonstrates determination to tackle one of the area’s most pressing problems. Surveys conducted in recent years confirm that, along with transportation and food prices, getting an adequate place to live remains among the highest priorities for Cubans.
It’s a colossal challenge: 44,517 homes built before 2030. A decade to honor their goals in housing construction — and that’s without counting, the no less important, rehabilitation of existing ones. In this province, 21,000 persons still live on dirt floors, a precarious situation, and more than 6,000 families have still not been able to fix damages caused to their homes by Hurricane Ike. In September 2008, the storm’s winds totally, or partially, destroyed 80,000 homes. In municipalities like Puerto Padre and Jesús Menéndez, Ike did damage to eight out of every 10 homes. It is the greatest destruction caused by any natural phenomenon to the area’s housing stock.
All hands (and materials) on deck
Houses in Cuba today are built by brigades of workers from state-owned companies; or by the hard work of the owners themselves, who in turn bear the brunt of the substantial costs involved in this effort, or who might receive help through public subsidies. In one way or another, the participation of future inhabitants has always been decisive — some grouped in micro-brigades as was very common in the 1980s, or individually, or more recently, by contracting the services of self-employed builders.
There is a long tradition of producing bricks and other materials in this province, whose availability is greater than in other regions of Cuba. The situation becomes more difficult in the case of harder to find resources such as steel, gravel and especially cement — the latter has been particularly elusive not only because of its scarcity nationally, but also for reasons of imbalances in its distribution. Cuba’s eastern region has always lacked in this area.
The government’s response to this situation has been to boost local production. In mid-2019, officials of the provincial government reported the existence of 14 conjunctive efforts created for that purpose. Floor tiles, blocks and bricks for the walls are produced by these efforts, in addition to other components such as joists, tanks, laundry rooms, sinks, and other necessities. Recently Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel praised the rapid introduction of low carbon cement in the area, an option devised at the Central University of Las Villas to double the output of the traditional P-350 cement.
Another important element is the newly created urbanization areas. Already in Las Tunas 18 have been designated with a total capacity of more than 2,000 homes and whose characteristics differ by the typology of their buildings. While one of the most notorious, that of Blanca Rosa, emphasized the use of traditional techniques, others such as those already existing in the municipalities of Manatí and Jesús Menéndez were built from buildings whose components are prefabricated. Last December, the director of Housing in the Las Tunas territory said that in the first quarter of 2020, a new neighborhood is projected to start that will provide 2,000 new houses for the provincial capital.
The incentive for the residents to dedicate their efforts to guaranteeing a decent home for themselves is not a new idea. At the beginning of the century the now relaunched popular housing construction movement gained strength. Through the principle of co-management, especially low income families are sponsored by a nearby state entity that provides them with technical advice, transportation of materials and, if all goes as planned, a qualified work force. In the 1990s, a similar initiative made possible the construction of 9,588 homes during a three year span, raising Las Tunas’ housing stock by 10 percent at the time.
Simultaneously, other ideas were implemented in the nation’s capital which included adapting unused and obsolete State buildings. In Las Tunas, former schools in the countryside no longer usable have been transformed into rural communities. In July 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) inaugurated the first consisting of 77 homes in the Puerto Padre municipality.
It’s a matter of cost
Growing economic inequality, due to the economic crisis as a result of the dissipation of the Eastern European socialist bloc, has created a difficult situation for many who had dreamed of a home. The legalization of the real estate market helped solve the problem for those with deeper pockets, but made it almost impossible for others with little purchasing power. In Las Tunas, for example, the price of a home is never less than 2,000 to 3,000 convertible pesos (CUCs), while the minimum rental for a small residence is about 35 CUCs a month.
With direct subsidies to the poorest families, the State has tried to help eliminate those inequalities. The financial aid project in Las Tunas has provided more than 198 million Cuban pesos (CUP) that have helped 4,300 families, reported the provincial government’s website last June. First on the list of those helped were persons who lost their homes because of Hurricane Ike. But just because money is provided does not guarantee that a new home is built.
In 2019, with state financial aid, 573 basic cells were erected — a technical term used to define a property consisting of a room, a bathroom and a kitchen. However, 142 were not built. The local press described most of these cases as dealing with “organizational and other problems with the stores that provide construction materials, as well as deficiencies in the work of office specialists in the areas of licensing for Housing and Planning.”
Díaz-Canel said that in 2020, delays in the execution of grants must be eliminated. He stated: “That someone lives on a dirt floor must hurt us all; the Revolution was not made for that.”
It is not only about construction of new quality homes, but also updating homes that deteriorate with the inexorable passage of time. In this regard, the reports are less promising because this area was not projected, not even in successful years like 2019.
If the official forecasts are met, the 6,552 families affected by Hurricane Ike will have their problems resolved by 2023. But if Las Tunas wants to meet its stated purpose of solving its most pressing housing problems during the next 10 years, it will have to quadruple the pace of construction. At the present rate the goal will be met by 2046 — definitely too long to wait.
