Government figures released in September show homelessness in Britain has risen by 17% over the last year while council house building remains practically zero. In stark contrast to this, the Venezuelan state is tackling the country’s own housing crisis head on.
On 30 August President Chavez inaugurated the socialist city of Caribia on 30 August, opening the doors of 602 apartments to families made homeless by devastating floods earlier this year. The homes have been planned and built through ‘Mission Housing Venezuela’ as part of the push to build two million new homes in the next six years. Although Venezuela’s housing deficit is estimated to be 1.5 million, the housing mission plans to exceed this in order to meet the needs of a growing population. Caribia City, located in Camino Los Indios outside Caracas, was first conceived of by Chavez and the Venezuelan government in 2006 and will be a planned, holistic community, complete with schools, health clinics and employment. The project was constructed by ALBA Bolivarian, a Venezuelan-Cuban enterprise agreed under the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA). This has been financed largely through 2.9bn bolivars ($674m) of nationalised oil revenue allocated by the Venezuelan government. The homes can be subsidised up to 100% if necessary depending on the occupant’s income.
Venezuelan cities have too long been characterised by tin shacks rising precariously on their hills, a direct consequence of the rural to urban migration engendered by a century of US hegemony over Venezuela’s oil wealth. With the nationalisation of Petroleos de Venezuela South America following the oil lock outs of 2003, Venezuela has been investing in meeting its population’s needs. Another branch of Mission Housing Venezuela is the construction of ‘petrocasas’, homes built with materials which are by-products of the oil industry. Petrocasas are built with highly resistant plastic frames filled with concrete, steel and iron girders, and are designed to be anti-seismic, non-flammable, durable, and hurricane resistant. There are currently three petrocasa factories in Carabobo and Apure and another five factories are being built in 2012 to serve the states of Barinas, Anzoátegui, Sucre, Trujillo and Zulia, each producing 20 houses per day. In Carabobo State alone 27,000 people have benefited from over 5,650 new petrocasas built by Pequiven, and a further 3,636 houses are due to be completed by the end of 2011. To provide land for these housing projects in Carabobo, the Venezuelan government expropriated 210,000 square metres of idle land that belonged to banks which collapsed in the 1970s and 1990s such as Banco Nacional de Descuento.
On 1 September, the Venezuelan government destroyed over 50,000 confiscated guns, doubling the total number of unlicensed and illegal weapons destroyed so far this year. This follows public debates during August over the proposed Law of Firearms Control and Disarmament in the National Assembly. The melting down of these guns will produce 60 tons of steel to be used by Mission Housing Venezuela, building houses whilst reducing the gun violence responsible for 94% of homicides in Venezuela. The proposed firearms law is being discussed by communal councils, individual citizens, academics, campesino and cattle rancher associations, sporting clubs, and non-governmental organisations with the aim of empowering communal councils to organise local control of gun ownership.
Sam McGill
FRFI 223 October/November 2011
