Matanzas/The boxes still keep clothes, and in a corner some kitchen belongings are stacked. The life of Maura and her granddaughter fits in suitcases and bags, always ready for the next move. Living for rent for rent means never undo the packages, because it is enough for the owner to raise the price or decide to recover his home so that the routine becomes domestic exile again. He dollar rise In the informal market, the price of the foreign ceiling has triggered.
In just six months, Maura has had to change the house twice. This Sunday, with 64 years in tow, the woman went out again to tour the neighborhoods of the city of Matanzas In search of a space that meets the minimum. “The only way to find something is like that, walking and asking,” he says with resignation. Some time ago he left his little house in the town of Carlos Rojas. “There is no future for the girl, and she studies at the University. My daughter, from the United States, is the one who pays the rent. But even with that help we have had to look for something cheaper: it barely reaches us for the elementary.”
In March it seemed that luck smiled at him: he managed to lease an independent house in High Peñas for 15,000 pesos per month. However, just a month and a half later, the owner appeared with the requirement to raise the rent to $ 50, a little more than 21,000 pesos to the current change. “The house barely had the basics and the worst thing was that it gave us ten days to gather the payment. If not, we had to leave. In the end we collected everything again. Today, a similar place, with a quarter, bathroom, kitchen, small living room and some appliances, it costs double,” he laments.
“Between my girlfriend and I won 12,000 pesos a month, and that barely gives to live in the Navy”
The situation is not exclusive. Yordan, who arrived from Jovellanos to work in a MSME, knows the rules of this game well. “Between my girlfriend and I won 12,000 pesos a month, and that barely gives to live in the Navy,” he says. Your rent: a house with a zinc roof, delivered empty. “We had to take to bed. Now the owner asks us for two months in advance, but if we find something before, we leave. That is in Candela,” he admits.
The couple has proven, in their search, that prices rise overnight. “A month ago we saw a little house near the pediatric: they asked for 8,000 and it costs 10,000. It only has a room, a bed and an electric bun, but there is little to light. That makes it more expensive,” explains Yordan. The water supply is another factor: “Where we are to store it, because they put it every four or five days. If you want a rental water rental, it does not fall from 20,000 pesos per month.”
Without contracts in between, tenants are at the mercy of the owners. The majority now ask for payments in dollars, despite the fact that the average salary barely exceeds 6,000 pesos. “I work in Versailles and I can’t even dream about living there,” Yordan adds. “The small houses cost $ 100 and the best conditioned, 150. In addition, as is an illegal business, there are no posters: they get with contacts, almost hidden.”
Some opt for a desperate solution: share a roof with almost unknown to distribute expenses
In parallel, the scams proliferate. Sandra, nursing student, knows it from experience. “In social networks they publish rentals. When you write to them, they tell you that to access a WhatsApp group where there are many offers you have to pay between 500 and 1,000 pesos. Then you realize that it is a trap: they publish two or three houses a week, with false telephones. Once I fell was enough,” he says.
The young woman, who is on the third year, is looking for a room near the Faustino Pérez hospital, fed up with the lousy conditions of the student residence. “The maximum I can pay is 10,000 pesos. But if I convert it, that is barely 24 dollars. And with the weight falling every day, everything is more difficult.”
Some opt for a desperate solution: share a roof with almost unknown to distribute expenses. Sandra does not rule out doing it with a school colleague. “Anything,” he says, “before continuing in a bunk, devoured by mosquitoes, unable to bathe and hungry.”
