The Inter-American Development Bank announced today the approval of a $150 million loan to Colombia to strengthen and expand a government program that assists disadvantaged groups in buying and improving their homes.
The program will finance approximately 61,000 subsidies for the purchase of homes for urban households earning between one or two minimum wages, or a maximum of about $250 a month. Another component of the program will finance 10,000 subsidies to improve existing low-cost housing units that lack basic services or facilities.
The project will be carried out by the Ministerio de Ambiente, Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial,* through its Vice Ministerio de Vivienda y Desarrollo Territorial. Municipal governments will receive technical assistance in planning, land management and housing, as well as financing for designing slum improvement and urban renewal.
Resources will also be provided for applying updated information technology to administer the housing subsidy system. Microlenders will receive training and management tools to enable them to become active in financing low-cost housing solutions on a pilot basis.
In addition to improving the living conditions of low-income homeowners, the program is expected to consolidate a 10-year old government subsidy programby making it more transparent and efficient and help reactivate the economy through an increase in construction by the private sector.
The executive director for Colombia on the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors, Luis Echeverri, commented that the credit is the first IDB investment loan for the country during the administration of President Alvaro Uribe Velez and constituted "technical and financial assistance to achieve an effective, efficient program to service the neediest communities" in housing, one of the major challenges of the country.