El Caribe newspaper criticizes the Municipality of Santo Domingo for turning down Colombit’s offer to build 46-square-meter homes for residents in Los Praditos neighborhood for RD$60,000 or US$3,500 each in 1999. The Municipality now favors a company known as Breica that offers to build the homes for US$5,200 to US$9,200. El Caribe points out that the exchange factor has to be established, regarding who will absorb the difference in case of a devaluation, as these houses would be sold to low-income residents. The Los Praditos slum neighborhood went up on government lands in the midst of areas where some of Santo Domingo’s most affluent neighborhoods also were built. The new development would allow for the improvement of streets that are now blocked by the chaotic placement of houses in Los Praditos. The municipality hopes to be able to apply the plan to other poor neighborhoods located in the middle of today prime real estate.
