Six members of a family from Arroyo Naranjo have lived in precarious conditions for almost two decades.
HAVANA, Cuba. – Cuban Yuniesky Llanes González, resident of the capital municipality of Orange Creekopened to CubaNet the doors of his home and showed the conditions in which he has lived for 19 years with his wife, his three daughters and his granddaughter.
“We live in this little piece that is two meters wide and four meters long,” said Llanes González when receiving this medium.
The small building where the six people live is summarized in a living room, kitchen, bathroom and a small utility room. The house built of wood and blocks shows signs of deterioration on the roof.
“Here I and my wife sleep in this personal bed and the three girls sleep in this crib,” explained Llanes González, pointing to the beds located in the living room of the house, which does not have a bedroom.
In addition, the man said that when it rains the house floods with water because the roof, built with pieces of zinc and fiber cement tiles, leaks and “the water runs down the walls as if it were a waterfall.”
Llanes González reported that for 19 years he has lived in “terrible conditions” and that, since that time, he hopes that the Municipal Housing Directorate of Arroyo Naranjo will agree to grant him a subsidy to improve housing conditions.
“We asked for a subsidy and we are still waiting for it; my wife went to see the social workers, and they came to visit us, but they haven’t told us anything either and we have already been living here for 19 years,” he said.
The interviewee also pointed out that the family manages to survive “barely” in a context of high inflation in which food prices have skyrocketed.
“Since February I made the request, at the Labor offices [Dirección Municipal de Trabajo y Seguridad Social] asking for a license for a small cafeteria that we had here and we had to close due to pressure from the inspectors. “No one from the Government cares if my daughters eat or not,” she denounced.
Llanes González claimed that he has no choice but to go out and “invent” to “find some pesos” and be able to feed the five people who depend on him financially.
“It’s just me because my wife works cleaning floors in a psychiatric hospital and what she earns is not even enough for her, much less to feed five people. I feel suffocated and there are times when I don’t even feel like getting home because the way we are living it is not possible for a human being to survive,” he lamented.
The housing shortage continues to be one of Cuba’s main problems, a situation that has just worsened with the passage of Hurricane Melissa, category 3, through the east of the country.
