Close to 10,000 families will improve their housing conditions through the fund organised by CAF and the Fundación Pro Vivienda Social

The presence of Raúl Zavalía, Executive Director of the Fundación Pro Vivienda Social (Foundation in favor of Social Housing), and Enrique García, Executive President of CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, formalized the institutional alliance which creates the Fideicomiso de Mejoramiento Habitacional Familiar (FMHF) (Trust fund for the improvement of family housing), A CAF social innovation initiative that will enable financial access, technical assistance, and quality construction services to lower income communities in the Municipality of Moreno. 

The project, which is supported by the Ministry of the Interior, Public Works, and Housing, through the Federal Program "Mejor Vivir" (Better Living), suggests a comprehensive solution to improve housing and neighborhoods focusing on community empowerment and a dignified habitat as a source of local development that will facilitate the coordination process so that companies, neighborhood organizations, and the public administration may become partners in a scheme to promote the access to services for housing improvement.  

Enrique García, CAF's Executive President, explained, "These types of solutions, in addition to being original, have a high sustainability potential as it is the neighbors themselves who change from being passive individuals facing a problem, to proposing a solution that goes from the bottom up". He added that beneficiaries change the perception of their reality and become responsible for managing the solutions to access better housing.  

The Trust Fund for the Improvement of Family Housing (FMHF, for its acronym in Spanish) is an innovative solution to a complex problem that has already been validated by the FPVS, organization that has been implementing projects for the provision of public services for more than two decades. Among these projects, the creation of four neighbor trust funds that have enabled access to gas in networks of diverse areas of Moreno (Greater Buenos Aires area) in collaboration with Gas Natural Fenosa.

Raúl Zavalía, Executive Director of FPVS, states, "this initiative is directly aimed at the mitigation of the housing problem, and it simultaneously promotes local development through strategies that provide employment to the young people of the area, helping them become service providers and technical advisors for the construction sector". 

A key point in the project will be community organization, as demand will be organized by a group of neighborhood developers that will be in charge of promoting and managing neighborhood activities. With respect to the financial solution, it will be adapted to the payment capacities of each familiy for the improvement of their homes. 

Form the social innovation perspective, Ana Mercedes Botero, CAF's Director in this area, points out that the project responds to an urgent need of the most vulnerable communities, and "builds an effective bridge between supply and demand to address the requirements of this population for better housing in an original and sustainable manner". 

The State will be a key actor in the development of this initiative, as it will provide significant economic resources for the execution of future works to improve housing and extend the new public services networks. Through funds from the federal housing improvement program "Mejor Vivir" (Better Living), the Ministry of the Interior, Public Works, and Housing becomes a part of this working alliance between CAF and the FPVS.