By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In the municipality of Maricá in Rio de Janeiro state, President Dilma Rousseff and Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão were on hand to inaugurate 2,932 homes which are benefiting more than 11,000 people, according to government sources. The Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House My Life) the massive public low income housing campaign launched by the Brazilian Federal Government in 2009 is now in its third phase.
At the ceremony on Friday (July 31st), President Dilma Rousseff said “In addition to the villas, the Minha Casa Minha Vida creates jobs. With the program, turns the wheel of the economy. Each of these houses was built by workers. In the third phase of the Minha Casa Minha Vida, we will deliver three million homes that will be added to the 2.7 million homes of the second stage and one million homes in the first phase. In 2018, [there] will be almost seven million households.”
President Rousseff and Pezão (Bigfoot) joined the Minister of Cities, Gilberto Kassab, to announce the opening of the housing units allocated to families with income of up to R$1600 per month. Each property has two bedrooms, living room, bathroom, kitchen and laundry area, according to the government.
“The support of the federal government and President Dilma is important to make a better quality of life for the Rio population through actions such as the execution of works for the construction of homes and the installation of sewerage networks,” said governor Pezão.
The homes are located in Itaipuaçu district of Maricá, housing developments received investments of R$195 million. The residents of Carlos Alberto Soares de Freitas received 1,460 units, and Carlos Marighella, received 1,472 apartments. “The families included in Maricá are having the chance to win a home with monthly payments of approximately R$50,” said Kassab.
The Minha Casa, Minha Vida program, funded primarily through the PAC 2 (Growth Acceleration Program) calls for at least one third of units to be given to families making up to three minimum wage salaries. From 2009 to 2014 data from the federal government shows that roughly two million housing units have been constructed nationwide, with an additional 350,000 units planned for the first semester of 2015.
The municipality of Maricá is situated on the coast of Rio de Janeiro State just about twenty kilometers away from Niterói, and only about sixty kilometers (forty miles) north from the city of Rio. Maricá provides residents with plenty of calm and tranquility, and the small city and long coastline is divided in four districts – Maricá (central), Ponta Negra, Inoã and Itaipuaçu.