Venezuela’s Acting President, Delcy Rodríguez, promulgated the Housing Construction Promotion and Protection Law on Tuesday after an inspection at a temporary camp in Caracas, a measure meant to ease red tape and attract private investment.
The new legal instrument, signed on August 25 at the camp sent up in the Caracas Polyhedron, will promote the construction of more homes by eliminating obstacles and complexities, thus ensuring greater availability and access to housing for the Venezuelan people.
RELATED: Venezuela Benefits Over 4,500 Citizens Under Recovery Plan in 2 Months After Quakes
“This law will seek to promote building more homes, to remove any kind of obstacle, limitation, difficulty, complexity, and so we can guarantee greater availability of housing for access by the people, the Venezuelan people,” Acting President Delcy Rodríguez affirmed during the visit to the temporary camp for earthquake victims.
Rodríguez also highlighted the role of private capital.“This law will also allow greater flows of private investment for housing construction, added to the effort the State is making, as the president of the National Assembly said, to build new homes,” she stated.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Una publicación compartida de teleSUR English (@telesurenglish)
Streamlining Housing Construction
The National Assembly approved the bill last Friday to encourage the construction of new homes and to protect both builders and buyers. The legal text contains 40 articles regulating contracts, sales, responsibilities and the oversight functions of the Ministry of Housing and Habitat.
Construction companies will be required to create a trust fund and to spell out in their contracts the execution schedule and the characteristics of the properties. The law establishes sanctions for non-compliance, delays in documents, permitting failures, contempt or violations of preventive measures. Fines range from the equivalent of 300 to 54,000 times the highest-value currency, according to the exchange rate of the day.
The measure arrives two months after two earthquakes shook Venezuela. On June 24, tremors of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 left thousands of families without shelter. On July 14, the President of the National Assembly estimated that 25,000 homes were needed for the victims. Rodríguez ratified in July her commitment to monthly deliveries, with a goal of 4,000 completed homes by December.
Acting President reported more than 61,000 inspections of buildings to assess damage from the earthquakes, and said 11,000 of those structures present high risk. In the same event, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez noted that 3,000 new homes are being built in Catia La Mar, a locality in La Guaira state that was the most affected by the seismic doublet.
Ver esta publicación en Instagram
Una publicación compartida de teleSUR English (@telesurenglish)
Quake Recovery Accelerates
At the Polyhedron Camp, Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and her government team reviewed the essential services offered to those sheltered there. The facilities include medical clinics, psychological support, occupational therapy and a common dining room with capacity for 300 people.
Bolivarian authorities also announced progress in emptying schools that had been used to shelter affected families before the new school year begins. Six schools have been released in Miranda state and three institutions in the Capital District, meanwhile the residents were relocated to other adapted spaces.
With the 40 articles now part of the legal framework, the measure seeks to turn the reconstruction effort after June’s earthquakes into a sustained housing program, one that depends on the arrival of the private investment Rodríguez promised.
From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.