Mexico: Social Housing Support Project

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Mexico has been largely successful in improving housing affordability and increasing housing supply. Though access to housing hasexpanded, the poorest and most vulnerable population segment continues to lack access to safe, affordable, and adequate housing.While the allocation of federal housing subsidies in combination with a public mortgage loan has stimulated housing supply forlow-income families, without access to financing, and lacking the means to buy a new unit in the formal market, most families withlow and informal incomes build their homes progressively. Due to the informal nature of their construction, most self-producedhomes have high deficits related to the quality of their construction, use of inadequate materials, and lack of sufficient livingspace.The proposed Project aims to support the scaling-up of the Social Housing Program (SHP) of the National Housing Commission(CONAVI) in selected municipalities. The SHP’s objective is to provide vulnerable groups that have been largely excluded from thehousing market with the resources they need to build or upgrade their homes and improve their quality of life. In line withCONAVI’s 2021 Operational Rules, priority is given to Indigenous Peoples (IPs), female-led households, persons with disability,migrants, and displaced families in the selection of beneficiaries.The Project also requires the incorporation of sustainabilityaspects in the housing design and self-production of housing units to increase the climate mitigation and adaptation potential ofhousing solutions in Mexico. The value of the housing support provided by CONAVI incorporates the costs for appliances andtechnologies that contribute to resource efficiency and emissions reductions of each housing solution. CONAVI also seeksto maximize energy and resource efficiency by promoting the use of local, sustainable materials and bioclimatic design.TheProject will have two components: Component 1: Support to vulnerable households in eligible municipalities to build, improve, orexpand their homes, and Component 2: Project management and institutional strengthening. The proposed Project is aligned with theWorld Bank Group’s Mexico Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for the period 2020–2025. In particular, the Project contributes toenabling sustainable infrastructure and climate action, especially in the south and southeast of the country, through (i)‘Objective 6: Provide more inclusive and sustainable infrastructure services’, by supporting Government efforts to provide greateraccess to low-cost, resilient housing while supporting relevant institutions in comprehensive urban planning for equitable accessto public services, and (ii) ‘Objective 7: Support the government in reaching its climate change goals’, by strengthening systemicmeasures and policies in place to reduce energy consumption and emissions in the residential housing sector. The Project is alsoconsistent with the World Bank Group’s Green, Resilient and Inclusive Development (GRID) framework, whose integrated,longer-horizon strategy aims to repair the structural damage caused by the pandemic, accelerate climate-change mitigation andadaptation, and underpin a strong and durable economic and social recovery.The Project is also aligned to the NationalDevelopment Plan that establishes a broad Government vision for 2019– 2024, the National Housing Program for 2019–2024, and theSector Program for Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development 2020–2024. These documents formalize the shift of Mexico’s housingassistance model toward prioritizing the housing needs of the most vulnerable households in underserved regions and scaling upfinancial and technical assistance to households for self-production and home improvement to improve the quality of Mexico’shousing stock. Finally, the Project is aligned to and complements the Government’s Emergency Program for the Reactivation of theEconomy, through investments in both urban upgrading and home improvement to create jobs, improve living conditions, and contributeto a resilient recovery from the crisis.