Brugada delivers 169 new homes in Coyoacán with areas of up to 65 square meters.

• He emphasized that the project benefits nearly 1,000 people and will include care services, such as a child development center, a cafeteria, and a laundry.
• With an investment of more than 170 million pesos, the average cost of each apartment was 846,000 pesos, which will be repaid over 20 years through a social loan.
• This is a government that promotes a social policy to guarantee the right to affordable housing, the right of the organized people to ensure that those in need have access to affordable housing, the president indicated.

Mayor Clara Brugada Molina delivered 196 homes measuring 60 and 65 square meters, as part of the housing complex located at 2771 Calzada de La Virgen, Coyoacán, benefiting nearly 1,000 people. This initiative reinforces the social policy promoted by the Mexico City government to guarantee the right to adequate housing.

"We want to become a great example of government, with social policies to guarantee the right to affordable housing, the right of the organized people to obtain affordable housing for those in need," said the capital's leader after cutting the ribbon to inaugurate the apartments.

He established that housing must be good, affordable, with accessible credit, and located in problem-free areas; not in the middle of indigenous communities, nor where there are cracks or lack of water. "That's what we want to do throughout Mexico City," he stated.

Before residents of the Coapa Culhuacán CTM VII neighborhood, Brugada Molina explained that this housing complex will have a Child Care and Development Center to accommodate the community's children, a dining hall, a community laundry, social spaces for senior citizens, and rehabilitation spaces for people with disabilities.

"We need to think about a care system in all housing complexes," he said.

Brugada Molina emphasized that thanks to changes in the Housing Institute's (INVI) operating rules, affordable housing can now be built with more than 60 square meters, like the ones delivered today. "We've changed the operating rules so that the minimum is 60 square meters, but that's the minimum. That doesn't mean that's the ceiling, but it is the minimum."

At the same time, he proposed changes to the operating rules so that residents of joint housing projects would not have to pay any excess for construction, and that the city government would be the one to grant the full loan.

He emphasized that he doesn't want the population in need of housing to leave Mexico City, because doing so would require them to make long commutes to work.

"We want housing, and we want decent housing in decent places, because that's what the people of the capital deserve. Just because we have cheap housing and cheap land doesn't mean we're going to a suburb where there are cracks or no water," he reiterated.

Inti Muñoz Santini, head of the Housing Secretariat, highlighted that the Public Care System will be implemented in this 196-unit housing complex, providing cultural, educational, and social spaces for the benefit of children, senior citizens, and more than 800 other residents.

"There will be five large spaces, each measuring approximately 200 square meters, that will be used to implement the care system, which is already part of the policy of the central government of Mexico City," he said.

He added that the city government invested more than 170 million pesos to build 60 to 65 square meter apartments, which are pioneering the housing policy promoted by the Mayor and the struggle of organized society.

He also noted that each home cost an average of 846,000 pesos, which will be repaid over 20 years through a social loan. "They all have solar heaters, cisterns, a rainwater harvesting system, water-saving devices, and energy-saving light bulbs."

The Secretary of Housing specified that the project covered more than 14,000 square meters of construction, requiring an urban impact assessment that determined various mitigation measures, such as the improvement of 10,000 square meters of the La Virgen road median strip, pedestrian crossings, new sidewalks, reforestation, and other interventions.

Irene Soto, a representative of the Nueva Generación organization, highlighted that as of today, 196 families have decent housing. They worked in an organized manner to mitigate part of the median strip in front of the housing unit. She called on the beneficiaries to continue providing ongoing maintenance to their homes and surrounding areas.

One of the beneficiaries, Lizbeth Jiménez, thanked the City Government for supporting affordable housing and allowing the capital's residents to fulfill their dreams. "I feel very happy; it's a dream come true. I believe having affordable housing is important for all citizens, (...) it's very satisfying to have a place to live within Mexico City. We didn't have to leave the state or migrate to another state to be able to buy a home," she commented.

Finally, beneficiary Sebastián Villarreal, who received the key to his home from the Mayor, recalled that they had fought for nearly five years to have their apartment today and acknowledged Brugada Molina's work in providing more funding for low-income housing and including young people.