Cuban families stand in the middle of a Havana street demanding decent housing

Housing constitutes the biggest social problem in Cuba and the measures of the Cuban government still do not resolve the needs of thousands of families.

This is the case of a group of residents of San Pedro 258, in the municipality of Habana Vieja, who have been standing in the middle of the street for 17 days demanding decent housing.

"We have been stuck out there for 17 days and the lack of respect has been enormous. It has been a botched, inhuman thing, we simply want our right to life to be respected," Yodhander Barrera Crespo assured Cubanet.

"We are left out because our building can no longer hold up and the administrative authorities do not give us any explanation, they have us completely marginalized. For them we are garbage," lamented this citizen who is immersed in the protest.

In addition to suffering the inattention of the authorities, who still do not provide a solution, these citizens have suffered threats and coercion from the police, who even imposed a fine of 100 pesos for obstructing the road.

"We are left out because our building can no longer hold up and the administrative authorities do not give us any explanation, they have completely marginalized us. For them we are garbage"

"At a certain moment things came in, they don't respect us. For taking things out they told us that they are going to put us in prison for 60 days. So we, as normal people, ask what law says that. We don't know where to turn , nor who to turn to," he denounced.

"They have mainly fined women, they have fined them up to one hundred pesos, but no one cares about what might happen to us, the only thing they know how to say: 'that's housing problems,'" said Barrera Crespo.

"They have mainly fined women, they have fined them up to a hundred pesos, but no one cares about what might happen to us, the only thing they know how to say: that is housing problems"

Euclides Santos, Provincial Director of Housing, explained during the meeting he held with those affected that the failure to deliver their new homes has been the fault of the construction companies that, he said, have not respected the deadlines.

"I am demanding that the directors of those three companies come and show their faces, as they are the ones who have to come here," he said.

Yodanis Carmona Álvarez, another of the affected residents, also revealed some details of the meeting with Santos.

"All the houses that are being built at this moment are for the people of the MININT and the military, there were none for the people. "We are going to stay outside until the end, for the lives of our children," he warned.

"We are going to stay out until the end, for the lives of our children"

Another neighbor, who was identified as Heily Nieto Menéndez, recounted how the poor condition of her home put her nine-year-old daughter's life at risk. "My roof is in a critical situation, while my daughter was sleeping, a piece of roof fell next to her. It could have killed her," he reported.

Last May it was learned that a new ordering process It would come into force on the 27th of that month, focused on the legalization of homes, rooms, rooms and other premises. However, its implementation remains unresolved. housing deficit of the country, which today amounts to 929 thousand homes.