Minister of Housing and Urbanism Iván Poduje has expressed his intention for the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (Minvu) to autonomously determine how budget cuts are applied within his department. The statements were made in Punta Arenenesas during a working visit focused on addressing the housing deficit in the Magallanes region.
Poduje sought to de-escalate tensions with Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz following the latter's suggestions to discontinue programs across various state sectors. According to BioBioChile, the Housing Minister clarified that his stance is not a rejection of fiscal adjustments, but rather a defense of his agency's right to manage its own resources.
“We are going to make the cuts, but we are going to define them ourselves,” the minister stated, as reported by BioBioChile. The Secretary of State specified that the adjustments will be carried out without affecting programs that provide the greatest social impact or benefit to the population.
Strategy against underperforming construction firms
To meet expenditure reduction targets, the minister detailed a measure that will directly affect companies in the sector. The plan involves withdrawing funding for so-called “bridge loans,” resources intended to facilitate the execution of state works by construction firms.
According to reports from La Tercera, Minvu will develop a regional performance evaluation ranking to be published in the coming days. Poduje confirmed that the strategy will focus on penalizing entities with the poorest results.
“We are going to take away the bridge loans from the worst-performing companies in the ranking, and we will use those resources to meet the budget cuts,” the minister explained, according to La Tercera. Through this mechanism, the government aims to optimize the use of public funds by identifying companies with low performance in the execution of housing projects.
Tension in Valdivia housing committees
While the budgetary debate continues within the Executive branch, the social housing situation has reached a critical point in the Biobío Region. Leaders of the Guacamayo 3 housing committees in Valdivia have denounced years of waiting and unfulfilled promises from successive administrations.
The representatives of the project, which aims to deliver 575 housing solutions divided into stages A and B, expressed their desperation over the lack of progress. According to BioBioChile, the process has stretched for periods ranging from eight to twenty years, leading to the deaths of committee members and families abandoning the project due to economic hardships.
The leaders noted that, despite recent meetings with Minister Poduje held under lobbying laws, a lack of awareness regarding the project persists among some authorities. The families of Guacamayo 3 are demanding that established commitments be honored to prevent the housing crisis from further deepening the community's vulnerability.
