Ecuador to ease housing shortage with IDB support

The Inter-American Development Bank has approved a $200 million conditional credit line designed to ease a housing shortage in Ecuador, with a comprehensive, sustainable and inclusive approach in the framework of the “Homes for Everyone Sectorial Plan.” The credit line will finance an initial loan of $93.9 to identify housing solutions for low-income families.

The funding will aim to boost poor and vulnerable families’ chances of obtaining affordable, sustainable and universally accessible housing and strengthen the Ecuadoran government’s ability to develop and implement long-term housing policies. The first disbursement is designed to reduce a quantitative housing shortage among urban and rural households at the two lowest income quintiles of the population. It will give priority to families in which women are the main bread earners and those with people who are disabled, optimizing the management capability of the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing.

As for the impact of the program, achievement of the goals of the first loan will be measured with indicators that reflect improvement in health in rural areas, a drop in time spent on unpaid work among vulnerable families, a reduction in utility bills, and savings in usage of water, energy and construction materials.

For more than 20 years the IDB has been Ecuador’s main multilateral partner in the structuring and financing of public housing programs. This new campaign by the IDB and Ecuador therefore follows up on work done under the program known as “Homes for Everyone,” the goal of which is to ensure that 95 percent of vulnerable families in the country have a decent place in which to live.

It is worth noting that more than two million people in Ecuador suffer from a housing shortage, of which 1.2 million live in urban areas (21 percent with a quantitative shortage) and 850,000 in rural areas  (38 percent with a quantitative shortage).

The money for this line of credit will come from IDB ordinary capital. The French Development Agency will contribute parallel co-financing of $80 million toward attainment of the goals of the first loan.