The director of Housing, Jorge Ceretta, defended before Parliament the mechanism of direct awards for which President Luis Lacalle Pou he removed Minister Irene Moreira weeks ago.
The hierarch, from the kidney of the current senator of Cabildo Abierto, claimed the “sensitivity” with which the portfolio resolved situations of vulnerability in this way, which caused “a lot of discomfort” in the delegation that attended the Senate on Tuesday and this Wednesday to Deputies, as reconstructed The Observer.
The mechanism –which the lobbying leader Guido Manini Ríos defended at first but which days later assured that he himself “would not have done it”– has spread the malaise in the majority line of the party, to which today’s minister Raúl Lozano belongs. The retired colonel even avoided commenting on the actions of his predecessor and indicated that it would await the results of the administrative investigation.
Ceretta, an accountant by profession and appointed to the position by Moreira, argued before the Senate Housing Committee that “starting in 2009, the possibility of reserving quotas was foreseen,” in line with an argument initially made by Manini Ríos and maintained to this day by Irene Moreira, despite the fact that she acknowledged that “with Monday’s newspaper” perhaps “it was not the best decision”.
The hierarch repeated several times throughout his extensive appearance before the senators that the regulations had been created by the Broad Front governments, and assured that during those administrations “74 homes were reserved.” It was the communist senator Óscar Andrade who came to the crossroads by stating that he always “was at the request of another institution”, such as the Prosecutor’s Office for protected witnesses and the Ministry of Social Development (Mides). “It is not that the minister can think of electing someone, let alone a party-related person”he lashed out.
The head of the National Housing Directorate stated that in the verified cases “there are people of all political affiliations, of all origins, with employment ties.” “The person by having that closeness does not lose the right to housing. Somehow we understand that it can be viewed with suspicion, but I can assure you that in these 14 cases there are people with various affiliations,” he told the Senate.
Ines Guimaraens
Raúl Lozano and Jorge Ceretta
After reviewing the regulations of the year 2009 in which the Cabildo initially took refuge -which not applicable to the cases in question–, Ceretta claimed: “Based on everything reviewed, We generally comply with the fact that the direct award instrument is not contrary to law and that (…) does not prevent the family from having to comply with the requirements for access to housing within the framework of the programs”.
The director of Housing also relied on the premise that “there is no legal rule that prohibits it.”
Ceretta explained that the protocol created by the Ministry of Housing in 2021 that regulates direct awards was “a way of ordering the situations that had been raised informally”. “Here we are talking about isolated situations that could arise and due to the sensitivity of the ministry it was understood that solutions should be sought,” Jorge Ceretta alleged.
After this dissertation, Minister Lozano limited himself to saying that “the situation has to be studied.” “When the investigation is over, it will surely provide recommendations or suggestions and, based on this, with responsibility and seriousness, this ministry will adopt the corresponding decisions.”
Later in the appearance, the chief explained that in the case of the four houses that are already occupied today, it cannot be reversed: “If we did the opposite, We would be submitting to the State that those who were removed from their homes can appear before the Administrative Litigation Court, and according to the legal reports that I have received, they would win and it would be a really very important figure”.
The MPP senator, Sebastián Sabini, stated on behalf of the bench that in his opinion the Moreira procedure “is illegal”. “The minister cannot, by herself and before herself, designate or establish that a family has to be awarded, regardless of whether or not it meets the conditions. Because that family, if it meets the conditions, has to register in a raffle “, valued. “People in need and the characteristics of being awarded there are many: single mothers with children and people below the poverty line, unfortunately, more than 300,000,” she said.
A part of the leadership of Cabildo Abierto awaits the findings of the administrative investigation to resolve the dismissal of the director of Housingwho maintains the support of Irene Moreira.
What is known about the cases
Ceretta explained that there are four cases with home occupation through this route: three with “entry authorization” to enter for a trial period of one year, with the possibility of evaluating the permanence after that period; and one that is for rent with option to buy. There is a fifth case – the notorious episode of the militant lobbyist in New York and Yi – for which there was a “ministerial resolution”, but the apartment has not yet been occupied and the delivery was suspended while the administrative processes are carried out.
To this are added four others that “are no longer in play”: “In some cases, the family ended up giving up, and in others, they did not qualify due to different conditions”.
Other cases “are under study”, such as “someone who has a favorable report, but the file has not yet finished its process”. Ceretta cited the example of a man with a “significant health problem who is almost homeless” who, due to his medical expenses, the “only possibility is to access a home through an entry permit.”
“To complete the fourteen cases, it only remains to mention four that do not even have a file number. The secretariat received the possibility of analyzing these families,” the chief concluded.
From the FA they look at the rest of the programs, such as the Juntos Plan and the National Housing Agency, with the understanding that “if the mechanism was opened to all programs, then there could be people everywhere,” he said. to The Observer a leader.
