More houses or more figures? The housing advertisement in Colima
Infonavit and Conavi announced today an increase in their construction goal for Colima. They went from 13 thousand to 19 thousand homes promised for this six-year term. The news came wrapped in the usual display of round numbers and key-handing ceremonies.
The investment, they say, is 11,400 million pesos. It will generate jobs and benefit thousands. Edna Vega Rangel, from Sedatu, presented it during the presidential morning. He declared that there is “20% progress” towards the six-year goal. This year 7,500 houses will be completed.
“The right to housing has existed in the Constitution (…) for 40 years, but it was a right that had practically remained there on paper,” said Indira Vizcaíno Silva, governor of Colima.
His comment is a direct jab at past administrations. He criticized the time when “those close to power” built distant and substandard homes. Now, they promise that Housing for Wellbeing will be accessible and well located.
Octavio Romero Oropeza, director of Infonavit, symbolically handed keys to Rafaela, a single mother. He highlighted details such as high ceilings and several rooms. The official narrative is clear: this is part of a “transformative vision”.
But here’s my scalpel: increasing a goal on paper is easy. The complex thing is to guarantee quality, location and that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. Memory is fragile, but the legal and urban precedents are there.
Celebrating a key is emotional. Building functional cities with services requires more than speeches and photos for social networks. We will see if these almost 20 thousand promises materialize in decent homes, or only in statistics for the next report.
