Mozambique: Government starts delivering houses to victims of Cyclone Idai
File photo: O País, via CDD Moçambique
The Centre for Democracy and Development, a Mozambican non-governmental organization (NGO), says that the Housing Development Fund (FFH) policy is elitist, and access to a decent home is a “nightmare” for youth in the country.
“Despite saying that it favours the construction of ‘social’ housing, the fact is that the FFH adopts a commercial strategy focused mainly on providing for the high-income sections of the population,” a statement from the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) published yesterday reads.
The FFH’s “elitist approach” calls into question social development goals generally, the note adds.
In 2011, the Government launched a housing strategy, through the FFH, to boost construction in response to the deficit of dignified housing in the country.
For the CDD, the result “is a strategy that privileges people who are able to pay for the housing offered, thus excluding the millions of mostly young Mozambicans on low incomes”.
The organisation uses as an example the 12 houses opened by the FFH in June in the city of Chimoio, in the central Manica province, where the project includes 100 houses for recent graduates and civil servants.
The beneficiaries will have to pay, for a two-roomed house, 13,600 meticais (€171 euros) a month for 15 years, an amount well above what the overwhelming majority of Mozambicans earn.
“This is where the problem with FFH social housing programs lies. How many young graduates have the financial capacity to pay a monthly instalment of around €171.00?” the CDD asks.
Bearing in mind that “an average monthly minimum wage in Mozambique stands at around 7,000 meticais (€88 euros), how can civil servants afford to buy the houses held up as examples?” it adds.
The NGO wonders whether the Manica case of may not be similar to two previous ones, in which the same type of houses benefited people without housing problems who in fact used them to obtain an income [by renting them out].
“How long will it last, this shameful FFH theatre in the face of the suffering of young people due to lack of access to housing?” asks the CDD, further noting that less than 2% of the houses in the country are constructed from masonry and zinc sheets, and that the majority of the population lives in houses made of natural materials, according to United Nations information.
ACCESS TO HOUSING IN MOZAMBIQUE: How long will this shameful “drama” of Fundo para o Fomento de Habitação face the suffering of the youth who don’t have access to housing?
FFH adopts a commercial strategy that excludes millions of young Mozambicans.
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— CDD Moçambique (@CDD_Moz) July 2, 2020
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