“Red Tape” Blamed For Providing Homes For Cinchona Earthquake Victims

It was on January 8, 2009, when the area of Cinchona was devastated by an earthquake. Five years later, there still dozens of families waiting for a housing solution.

In the cantón of Poás de Alajuela alone, some 200 families saw their homes affected by the 6.2 earthquake, which killed 18 people.

Sofía Murillo, deputy mayor of Poás, acknowledges that the attention the affected families has been slowed by red tape: from the funding to locating the land for building.

Slowing down the process further is the lack of a master plan for the cantón. Murillo assures the municipality is moving as quickly as possible to find available land to build new homes. For the 60 families, the waiting endless.

For now, the municipality is counting on the support of institutions like the Fundación Promotora de la Vivienda (Fuprovoi) and its El Telón project, which consists of buiudling 19 houses of 42 square metres each. Construction started last September and is expected to be completed next month, according to Eloisa Ulibarri, Fuprovi executive director.

Ulibarri explains that the institutions has allocated ¢468 million colones for the purchase of land, development and the construction of a waper pipeline of more than one kilometre, to supply the needs of the 19 families. The excuetive said that the foundation had to bear the cost of the water supply, given that the municipality does not have the ability to supply drinking water to the project.

Despite the investment in providing housing for the families, Ulibarri said that the foundation was not without suffering delays by read tape. “At first we assumed we could build two homes per lot, but found it was not possible by existing regulations in the area of Poas. For this reason we could only build 19 homes”, said Ulibarri.

Source: CRHoy.com, Wikipedia