HAVANA.- “If this happens to us, lives would be lost. I want to think that there is still humanity here on the part of the authorities and that this situation matters to someone,” denounced Cuban Dunia Vega Leiva, mother of three children, whose lives are in danger due to the serious structural deterioration of your home.
Vega Leiva lives at Fernando Street No. 794, between San Agustín and Concordia, in the Arroyo Naranjo municipality, and assures that he has been waiting for a solution for ten years that never comes.
“There are many nights of tension. You can’t sleep peacefully thinking about it not raining, because the house could collapse. The only thing we need is help from the government, even if it means giving us some materials to be able to fix it,” he explained.
The woman, who also has her 72-year-old mother under her care, said that since 2016 she has requested help from the Cuban authorities to, “at least,” repair the roof of the house, whose deterioration is increasingly evident and dangerous.
“I have a demolition order signed by the municipal director of Housing of Arroyo Naranjo, approved since last year (2025), and until today no one has shown up. They tell me to wait, that they are going to come to the house, but one wonders when, or if they will ever come,” he expressed with frustration.
When it rains, the roof constantly leaks water, forcing the family to take refuge in the bathroom and a small kitchen, the only spaces where there are no leaks.
“Everything has been ruined for us: the mattress, the television, everything. But my biggest fear is that the house will collapse and fall on top of us,” he said.
The psychological pressure, he assured, is enormous. “Just thinking that it’s going to rain makes you desperate. I don’t wish it on anyone, because no one can live that way,” he confessed.
“Many times I have had to get the girl up at dawn and sit her in that little part of the kitchen, all together, waiting for it to clear so we can go back to bed. That is very hard to live with,” he said.
Humidity is another of the factors that worries you the most because of the consequences it has for your family’s health. “We always get colds because there is a lot of humidity. This is a house in very bad condition,” he said.
Vega Leiva reiterated that the government has left his family abandoned, recalling that ten years have passed since the first time he went to the authorities for help.
“It was because someone had come to see us. This is very dangerous. Not only when it rains, sometimes when it clears it is worse, because that is when a piece of the roof can come off, as has already happened, thank God, on the outside of the eaves,” he said.
Likewise, he pointed out that his home is small and that, if there was a will, the problem could be solved with very little. “With only seven tiles, the government could have solved this situation,” he stressed.
The chronic shortage of construction materials, high prices in the informal market and sustained inflation that plagues the country have further aggravated the critical housing situation on the island, whose deficit exceeds 900 thousand homes, according to official figures.
