BRIEFS. housing

Help sought for 72 families in pueblo nuevo

LA PRENSA/CARLOS LEMOS

calle 15 in pueblo nuevo1033800

In a dilapidated housing project in Pueblo Nuevo, disease runs rampant.

There has been four cases of hepatitis and many more reports of meningitis among the 72 families living there. The conditions are such that residents have to share three working bathrooms, as well as the constant fear that the structure will collapse or catch fire.

"We are invisible," said Yadira Field, who has lived in the building, on Calle 15, for more than a decade.

Field, who earns a living selling food on weekends and holidays, said that local officials have helped somewhat, but what the families living there really needs is help from the national government. And while there have been plenty of promises, nothing concrete has materialized.

One of the obstacles is that the building is privately owned, though the owner has not been located. Until the ownership of the property is straightened out, the government can do little to improve the conditions of the people living there.

Until then, the 73 families will continue to live in squalid conditions that are showing no signs of improving.