The Silent Intruder Disrupting Mexico’s Housing Dream
Mexico's housing crisis has reached a critical point. Government neglect, speculation, and gentrification have contributed to the problem. The goal is to recognize housing as a human right and make it accessible to all Mexicans.
Housing: a word that conjures up visions of stability, security, and the warm, fuzzy notion of having a roof over one's head. But in Mexico, as Deputy Lilia Aguilar Gil aptly points out, the housing market is entangled in the thorny vines of speculation, political maneuvering, and a frustrating housing deficit that haunts the dreams of millions. Aguilar, in her dual role as PT deputy and president of the Housing Commission, is no stranger to the perplexing paradoxes of the housing market. In a landscape where abandoned homes outnumber prospective homebuyers, how did things get so topsy-turvy?
"The problems have not changed, they have evolved," Aguilar notes with the resigned air of someone staring down an old foe with a few new tricks up its sleeve. She talks about the housing deficit—currently estimated at a staggering 7.1 million people clamoring for homes, while a baffling 8.7 million homes sit empty, like ghost towns in a Western movie, haunting Mexico’s sprawling urban edges.
