Venezuela delivers 4.9M homes, unveils women-led housing project

By Andreína Chávez Alava

CARACAS, (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Venezuelan government marked the 13th anniversary of Venezuela’s Great Housing Mission (GMVV) by celebrating the 4.9 millionth home delivered to working-class families.

President Nicolás Maduro unveiled the new milestone by inaugurating the “Parque Hábitat El Ingenio” housing project, located in Guatire city, Miranda state. In a televised broadcast, Maduro handed the apartment keys to a young couple and their child alongside local authorities.

One of the beneficiaries, young mother Marisabel Quiñonez, said she was studying electromedicine for free at the National Experimental University Francisco de Miranda. She highlighted free education and the GMVV housing program as fundamental aspects of the country’s social progress.

“The dream is not the American dream, it is the Venezuelan dream and today we are making it come true,” the young woman expressed in a message directed to the Venezuelan youth.

In total, 388 housing units were handed to Venezuelan families on Tuesday in the capital Caracas as well as the Miranda, Aragua and Táchira states in a live event to celebrate the GMVV anniversary.

For his part, president Maduro recalled that the Great Housing Mission, created by president Hugo Chávez in 2011 to allocate homes to low-income families at a low cost or free of charge, suffered under US sanctions but moved forward through people-led self-construction brigades.

A significant portion of housing projects are built by the same communities that benefit from the program. They organize brigades to receive training in everything concerning construction, from plumbing to electricity. Organized communities receive financial and logistical support from government institutions as well as support with construction work.

“After the sanctions missiles that tried to destroy Venezuela, we are rebuilding the country, recovering social rights and advancing towards a superior state of development, growth and empowerment of our people,” Maduro said. The Venezuelan leader promised that very soon his government will be delivering the 5 million milestone and reach the 7 million home goal by 2030.

During the live broadcast, Maduro dedicated a special segment to the inauguration of a women-led housing project in Caracas’ Antímano Parish that has become a reference of grassroots feminism and resistance.

The “Jorge Rodríguez Padre” urbanization was conceived in 2012 by grassroots leaders Ayari Rojas and Ycedia Bodeo, who brought together families in need of housing. They began searching for land and self-training in construction work.

In 2015, the women leaders secured the title of an abandoned plot and two years later began building two six-floor towers, each with 48 apartments of 66 or 76 square meters. Around 85 percent of builders and beneficiaries from these self-managed project are women.

Venezuelan vice president Delcy Rodríguez joined the inauguration of the first of two twin buildings and expressed gratitude for naming the urbanization after her late father and leftist leader, Jorge Rodríguez. The second tower is expected to be completed in the coming months.

Speaking to the president in the telecast, self-taught plumber and recipient of one of the 48 finished apartments, Claudia Tisoy, said the housing project had been a school and a lifetime experience. She asked Maduro to exonerate them of the remaining payments as a retribution for their long and hard work.

“We have been working in self-construction for 13 years and 85 percent of us are hard-working and hard-fighting women. We want these years of perseverance, of believing in the Revolution and never giving up to be dignified,” Tisoy affirmed. “We fought against the economic war, the blockade and the pandemic. We want our houses to be exonerated from payment and granted property titles.”

Under the social program, the Venezuelan government either builds houses and allocates them to families or provides the financing and materials for the self-construction brigades. It also supplies all the necessary home appliances and furniture. Depending on people’s income and the construction modality, the homes can be free of charge or low cost.

Families usually pay any remaining debt in favorable quotes for an extended time period. In the case of the Antímano project, Maduro responded to the women’s request by writing off all future payments.

“I approve the exoneration of all payments and that each of these families receives their property documents immediately. They deserve it!” he announced during the broadcast.

Venezuela’s GMVV housing developments often include sports centers, parks, medical offices, kindergartens and urban agriculture areas.