He Social Security Bank (BPS) will launch a pilot plan rent subsidies for retirees in Uruguay, with the objective of modernizing and making more effective the housing solution of the organization, and reduce the unsatisfied demand of the sector by up to 50% in a shorter period of time.
The president of the BPS, Alfredo Cabrera, He explained in dialogue with Radio Carve that the organization’s board of directors will discuss this new alternative on the current one. Retiree Housing Program that exists in the country, and that will begin to be applied in seven and eight locations until the end of the year. The first objective is to allocate some 100 rental solutions for those retirees who meet the necessary objective conditions and who are currently on the waiting list for the current program.
Criticisms of the current program and alternatives to improve the system
According to Cabrera, the current Housing Program for retirees – created in 1987 – has several shortcomings that make the initiative – very successful in its beginnings, when the necessary resources for the construction of housing complexes were available – “doomed in the long term.” to become unviable”.
On the one hand, many of the buildings for retirees They were built with another purpose—housing units intended as a “first home” and not as a “last home”—in addition to having remained what they are today. red zones, so people do not want to go or it is not convenient for them to be there. This results in many units being empty.
Furthermore, the current model of retirement buildings goes against the principles of active aging, who propose the integration of people in the environments in which they live.
The cost of the program is the biggest problem
However, the biggest problem with the current housing solution program is its cost: as Cabrera explained, each home has a average construction cost of $60,000while its maintenance and administration comes out $1,500 per year. If, in addition, we take into account that each building takes four years to buildthe initiative takes a long time to bring solutions to retirees and results in significant expenses for the institution.
Given this diagnosis, the BPS advances in a change of focus: Instead of subsidizing demand, the new plan will seek subsidize the offer with direct subsidies on rents.
This subsidy will be complete and with a maximum limit established from the average rental index prepared by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the average rents in each location. “We do not want to touch the market or have any impact that changes the rental conditions,” Cabrera explained in this regard.
This alternative, in addition to being faster—as it involves, for example, direct negotiation with the owners by the BPS—and more integrationist, is less expensive, since currently, the average rental cost per year is $5,500. “It is a much more efficient use of State resources that will allow reduce unmet demand by 50% in much shorter periods,” said the president of the organization.
This solution will be proposed to retirees who are currently on the waiting list of the current Housing Program, who currently number 4,000 in all. Uruguay.
Source: Ambito
