Senate unanimously approves decent housing reform

Mexico City. The Senate of the Republic unanimously approved the reform to Constitutional Article 123, which guarantees the right of workers to access decent housing, accessible economic conditions and to this end returns to Infonavit the possibility of building residential houses, part of them for rent, “without the law of the market, profit or utility prevailing.”

It is the sixth constitutional reform that was approved unanimously, with 106 votes in favor and zero against and was submitted today to the state congresses, to continue with the legislative process.

The president of the Constitutional Points Commission, Oscar Cantón Zetina, expressed before the Senate plenary session his satisfaction with the consensus of all the political forces regarding that minute that the Chamber of Deputies sent them, in which “the conditions are facilitated for that there be an aggressive housing, construction, repair and social leasing program, which has as its axis, of course, Infonavit, the National Housing Commission (Conavi) but other participation is also encouraged, of course, from the private sector. ”.

The intention, he stressed, is to define at the level of the Magna Carta, “a true social policy in terms of housing.”

In the second transitional article of this reform, Congress is given a period of six months to create the secondary laws that establish the new constitutional orders, but Senator Cantón Zetina said that there is a commitment to harmonize in that regulation the doubts that the opposition expressed in commission meetings.

The senator from Morena and leader of the teaching profession, Alfonso Cepeda Salas, also highlighted that it is a reform that will benefit approximately 55 million workers in Mexico and their families “by strengthening the capacities of the State to guarantee the right to adequate housing.” .

The general secretary of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) commented that he trusts that there will be another reform later to include teachers and other public servants in this social housing scheme.

The president of the Legislative Studies Commission, Enrique Inzunza, added that this modification to Constitutional Article 123 will allow workers to access cheap and sufficient credit to acquire or improve housing, or in cases permitted by law, acquire land and build. a home.

They may also opt for social rental housing, whose monthly payment may not exceed 30 percent of the salary, as well as the right to acquire them as property. In any case, preference will be given to working people who have continuously contributed to the fund, and do not have their own home.

“This right, needless to say, is not only a fundamental aspect of human dignity, like all rights, but also an essential pillar for social and economic development that guarantees that all people, particularly workers, can access a housing, and a home is then a home and a home is essential for the happiness of families,” he stressed.

For his part, president of the Urban Reorganization and Housing Commission, Luis Armando Melgar, commented that this reform proposed by former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador will make it possible to land one of the programs that President Claudia Sheinbaum, that of building a million dwelling houses.

Half a million will correspond to Infonavit, he said, and the remaining 50 percent to Conavi. He said that it is a revolutionary proposal, since “social programs are very important; But the disabled, the elderly, the scholarship holder, if they do not have a roof over their heads, if they do not have adequate housing, they will not be complete.”

The ruling establishes that after contributing for a period of 12 months to Infonavit, workers will be able to access social rental housing, with a monthly payment that may not exceed 30 percent of their salary. The PAN warned of a latent risk in this new scheme.

“We are concerned about the administration and management of Infonavit in its expansion of powers. It is not only an operational detail, it is a crucial and elementary component, the institute is already a pillar in housing financing, but it lacks experience in the construction and offering of rental housing, the approach of the initiative is noble, but we must consider the history of the institute and the fact that the lack of resources and the learning curve probably constitute an obstacle instead of a solution,” said PAN senator Miguel Márquez.