The Mexico City government is considering a program that would provide economic support to victims of the September 19, 2017 earthquake who want to move elsewhere in the country.

Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum explained that the support would come in the form of 525,000 pesos (US $27,000) or new housing. The idea is being discussed with the federal Secretariat of Agrarian Development and Urban Planning (Sedatu) and the Reconstruction Commission.

“If someone says, ‘I don’t want to be relocated there, I want to move out of the capital,’ we’re working with [federal authorities] to see how and with what resources the government can help families move to other parts of the country, but the program still isn’t fully developed,” she said.

The Reconstruction Commission plans to relocate 832 housing units in shanty towns of the boroughs of Iztapalapa, Tláhuac and Xochimilco. Of these, 573 are in areas where the ground was fractured by the quake.

Calculating an average of five people per family, the government estimates that it will have to relocate 4,160 people. It has already identified the land for the families’ relocation and plans to buy it soon.

But at least 15 families in the affected boroughs have shown their unwillingness to be relocated in the city.

Sheinbaum emphasized that the program is still in development and that it will be put before the victims for consultation and to come to a consensus.

She added that those who have been notified of relocation will be moved to different areas of the same boroughs in which they already live.

“What we want to do is inform the victims first and make everything public so that no bad information is circulated, to come to a consensus,” she said.

On September 19, federal authorities reported that earthquake reconstruction efforts were 30% complete.

Source: El Universal (sp)