Housing Minister Iván Poduje announced this Friday in Penco, in the Biobío Region, a housing solution for around 900 people who were living in shared homes when the summer fires struck.
According to Cooperativa, the minister explained that some administrative procedures remain pending. However, the ministry has already acquired a plot of land and will buy at least three or four more to build the homes.
The beneficiary families formed 16 housing committees. Until now, their situation had taken a back seat to that of people who lost their own homes in the fires.
"We are providing a housing solution for families living in shared homes, who are also victims of the fires and who organized themselves into committees," Poduje said. He added that they will be able to apply for a new home and that one of the plots, in the Ríos de Chile area, is already ready.
The minister, an architect by profession, regretted being unable to move faster and identified a culprit: "The main problem we have is burrocracy." He explained it this way: "I insist on the double r."
"These are clumsy procedures we have to carry out within the state, which delay us for weeks while families have to wait in vain," he said.
To address that problem, Poduje reiterated a proposal he has raised in recent weeks. He announced that the government will introduce a bill to create a new Reconstruction Division, with tools designed specifically for disasters.
"Believe it or not, despite being a country prone to disasters, we are using tools for normal situations," he said of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (Minvu). The minister did not specify a date for submitting the proposal to Congress or a timeline for building the 900 homes.
