Sandinistas' response to the housing crisis
Ulf JUNGMAR and Mats TINNERWALL
MANAGUA — "Some of us had electric light but we didn't have drinkable running water.
We had to get water from those who did have it.
"Our neighborhood expanded both to the west and east, growing from 200 dwellings to over 800.
"Flooding was so bad that we could see clothing fron. the Waspan section of the city or from our own neighborhood go floating by."
That was what a Sandinista Defense Committee (CDS) leader from the Jose Dolores Estrada section of the city told
This section has just had a meeting the strong popular support for the law, even the reactionary opposition paper La Prensa has been forced to write positive articles about it.
Today we are in a luxurious villa in Managua with a swimming pool. It is the former private paradise of the Match King, Pedro Ortega. Now, he is living in Honduras under the name "Juan Carlos" and working with the counterrevolutionaries.
Like the property of other Somocistas, the house has been nationalized, and is being used by the National Committee
"When the housing law was published, there was a wave of evictions throughout the country," CDS leader William Bland-
"The law was going make it impossible for landlords to evict their tenants. At the same time, income from rentals was going to be limited to about 10,000 cordobas (about 1,000 US dollars) per month per landlord."
"There is a landlord who has over 3,000 apartments, so he would get about three cordobas a month per tenant. All rents are to be paid to the state, which will then pay each landlord. The surplus will be used for new buildings and for improvements in old neighborhoods.
"The evictions were stopped by a decreee. Rents were lowered to assure that no one pays more than 5% of the value estimated for tax purposes in one year.
"And, as in most countries," William
"the estimated tax purposes is low. After twenty years, the dwelling goes to the tenant because the value of the building has been reim-
"Why not nationalize housing outright?" we asked.
"That's too big an operation," William Blandon answered. "That would make
the revolution a lot of enemies even among the small landlords.
"The state is going to have enough problems administering this law, and it does not have the resources to administer all housing in the country.
"We think that access to housing is a social right, and so we limit the possibilities for making money from people's needs. The law responds to the people's need for cheap housing. Even the poor can become the owners of their homes
Again freedom from rent sharks, runoff water won't flood the houses, and they dig feeder ditches leading into a big drainage ditch."
This year it is planned to provide running water, electricity, and drainage for 14 neighborhoods in Managua. So far, this has been done for five or six. Some of the improvements are done as public works, with workers getting a wage equivalent to the average.
On an overcrowded bus into town, we passed by extensive shantytowns, where people have built shacks to live in. They are made of planks with corrugated roofs. Often people keep their own chickens and even pigs, and open a little shop or cafe on the veranda to supplement the family's income.
But despite the poverty and poor housing, we did not see widespread desperation. With the Sandinista revolution, people have gained a new self-confidence and new opportunities to determine their own future.
and evictions, and arbitrariness."
"What role do the CDS committees play with respect to improvements made
Economic progress in the various sections and neighborhoods of the city?" we asked.
in Nicaragua proposals come
"The demands and
All the land from the CDS committees.
on which families have built their houses now belongs to those who live on it, so they can be secure about continuing to live there. But often there is no drink-
By mobilizing 15,000 volunteers, Nic- of our income. They raise interest rates aragua successfully harvested a record to such an extent that while they were able water in the neighborhood, and
70,000-ton coffee crop in December lending us at 6 percent, now they lend to people have to go long distances to get it.
"Houses were flooded during the rainy
Before the revolution, there was a law that those who rented out buildings had to take care of providing water, light, and drainage. Naturally, the law was not
"Now the government provides materials and technical advice.
generally done by those who live in the neighborhod. And it is usually organized by the local CDS committees.
"The first thing to be done, for example, is to bring in water to a common so that at least everyone will have drinkable water near even if it cannot be piped into the houses right away.
"The CDS committees discuss and
Sometimes they simply plan drainage.
lower the level of the streets, so that the
- Nicaragua has a population of 2.9
The average wage for workers is
2,000 cordobas a month (about 200 US
- Most people spend 20 to 30% of and January. Unfavorable weather and repeated attacks by counterrevolutionary bands failed to disrupt this important