Gringos do not need to apply
BY: A.S. VALEN
In Mexico, two main institutions help workers registered in social security programs and those who are not in that scheme to acquire decent housing.
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One is the INFONAVIT The Institute of the National Housing Fund for Workers, is a social service organization with its own legal personality and assets, established on April 24, 1972.
The Institute’s purpose is to manage the resources of the National Housing Fund, which are constituted with the contributions received from both the employers and the workers.
With these resources, it operates a financing system that allows workers to obtain inexpensive and sufficient financing for the acquisition of comfortable and hygienic rooms or the construction, repair, expansion or improvement of their rooms.
The other one is the CONAVI (National Housing Commission) is an institution of the Government of Mexico that provides housing support and subsidies aimed at the people who need it most. They are not loans or credits but rather gifts.
Families who live in conditions of extreme poverty and marginalization, or with high rates of domestic violence, people with disabilities and indigenous populations, are their priority.
Conavi has materialized the Constitutional mandate that states that every person has the right to adequate housing.
President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office October 1, announced that a federal government program will take over the task of building one million homes, as well as the renovation of another 450,000 starting in 2025 to reduce the gap in this matter with a program focused on battered women, youth and Indigenous people.
These will be located in priority areas of the country, focused on helping the vulnerable population and families in risk areas, such as irregular settlements in the “arroyos”, as well as areas with high rates of insecurity and need for housing or with high demographic increase.
The INFONAVIT will invest 288 billion pesos (about US $15 billion) in the construction of 500 thousand homes, for which financing focused on low-income beneficiaries will be implemented.
In addition, a construction company will be created to reduce building costs, while increasing the capacity to generate the properties necessary to meet population demand.
At the same time, 250 thousand credits will be granted for home repair, remodeling or expansion, in addition to a million financings already granted annually by INFONAVIT.
On the other hand, the CONAVI, will allocate 285 thousand million pesos f(about US $15 million) for the construction of 500 thousand homes over the next six years, for people without social security, as well as another 15 thousand million pesos (nearly US $800 million) for improvements in 300 thousand properties.
For this purpose, a house-by-house census will be carried out in order to open housing applications, while these will be granted to those not entitled to any housing program, and with low economic income who will access financing with 0%, interest rates and monthly payments less than 30% of each applicant income, for up to 30 years.
Likewise, another 100,000 rental homes will be allocated for young people between 18 and 30 years old in housing units surrounded by industrial zones and educational centers, also with monthly payments not exceeding 30% of their income, and for up to five years, with the possibility of extending it by two more.
The monthly payments received by the beneficiaries will help to recover the revolving capacity of both institutions, which will continue to inject resources into the Financial Trust for Wellbeing, created for this purpose, to meet new assignments.
