Housing Minister Fernando Zumbado plans to spend the night with a family in a
San José shantytown in an effort to urge legislators to prioritize proposed laws to fight poverty, according to a statement from the Housing Ministry.

On Tuesday night, the minister plans to arrive to a shantytown in Pavas, west of San José, eat dinner with a family and spend the night at their home. The following morning, he will eat breakfast with them and hand out housing grants to several families before leaving, the statement said.

Zumbado hopes to convince legislators to pass a law that would create a luxury tax for residences worth more than ¢100 million ($190,000). This money would be used to eradicate shantytowns and build houses for low-income families.

Passing a law that would title properties in shantytowns so that those living there can gain formal ownership is another priority for the Housing Ministry, Zumbado said.

The minister also sent a letter to National Liberation Party legislator Ofelia Taitelbaum, who presides over the Legislative Assembly’s Social Issues Commission, explaining the importance of creating new resources to fight poverty.

“It is necessary, in complying with the constitutional mandate that demands that the state work toward the well being of all inhabitants… to legislate so that those who have more resources support efforts to help those who lack these resources,” the letter said.

-ACAN-EFE