Dominican Republic: six in ten households cannot afford adequate housing, the Mivhed admits
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic — Around 60% of Dominican households, those in the three lowest income quintiles, face serious financial difficulties accessing adequate housing, according to the Ministry of Housing, Habitat and Buildings (Mivhed) during a national seminar held at the Catalonia Hotel in the capital.
The figure was presented by Rafael Alejandro Morel, director of the Housing and Habitat Deputy Ministry, at the meeting organized by Ciudad Alternativa to assess the progress and challenges of housing and habitat policies over the past five years. Morel explained that the cost of buying a home exceeds the financial capacity of a large share of families, and that mortgage financing conditions are among the main barriers.
Under official parameters, a family should devote between 30% and 33% of its income to cover housing costs. However, lower-income households do not even reach that threshold. Morel also pointed to land prices and limitations in territorial planning, but stressed that financing is the most important obstacle: structural barriers to credit access and its high cost mean many families end up paying more in interest than the home itself is worth.
As an example, he mentioned that during the design of the Mi Vivienda program, an initial group of 500 potential beneficiaries was selected, but difficulties accessing credit prevented progress as planned. Faced with these limitations, Mivhed announced it is working on a program called Vivienda Solidaria (Solidarity Housing), aimed at easing access to financing without depending exclusively on traditional banking, with cooperative housing managed by cooperatives and trusts that would let social organizations access loans. The official gave no dates for its implementation or the resources assigned.
On the same panel, researcher Jenny Torres, a specialist in poverty, gender and public policy, warned that the state response remains insufficient against a deficit of more than 300,000 homes: building between 15,000 and 24,000 units in six years is out of proportion with the scale of the problem. Torres also criticized programs such as Familia Feliz and Mi Vivienda for mainly benefiting families with borrowing capacity, and policies that merely deliver buildings without guaranteeing basic services, jobs and livelihoods in the surrounding area, as happened, she said, with the resettlements linked to the Monte Grande dam.