Thirty-Two Years After Quake, Many Angry Mexicans Still Wait for Homes Noe Torres - Thomson Reuters Foundation
go to original September 22, 2017

Residents take stock of damage near epicenter in Mexico earthquake (CGTN)

Donate: How You Can Help Central Mexico Earthquake Victims (Care2)

When Tuesday's earthquake struck Mexico, Martha Mejia watched the tin walls of her tiny shack quiver and remembered the smell of death that hung in the air of shattered apartment blocks 32 years before.

"I wanted to scream because I had lived this all before. I wanted to run out and scream," said the 64-year-old Mejia, whose home was destroyed in a 1985 quake that devastated Mexico City. "Back then, I was strong. But this time I felt it more."

The 1985 earthquake, which killed around 5,000 people, was a defining moment for the Mexican capital.

Three decades on, hundreds of its victims are still living in hovel encampments across the sprawling city of 20 million, waiting for long-promised government-subsidized homes - and now the latest quake has made thousands more people homeless.

Mejia's apartment building in the Santa Maria la Ribera neighborhood was shaken to the ground in 1985. Today, she lives in one of the encampments with her husband, her daughter and a granddaughter.

Their 10-foot by 20-foot hovel in the Lindavista district in the north of the capital has a double bed, a bunk bed and a stove.

"Supposedly this place was going to be temporary, but that temporary has been my whole life," she said.

A heavy rain pounded on the tin roof of the shack as Mejia watched TV coverage of this week's earthquake and wept. Tuesday's tremor - which struck on the anniversary of the 1985 quake - killed close to 300 people.

"The time has come for me to give up all illusions," Mejia said. "Now with this other earthquake, how many people will be left homeless? They are going to make new shelters and we are going to stay in the same one."

According to the leaders of the Lindavista camp, its ramshackle shacks are home to around 750 people, divided into roughly 250 families.

There are almost 200 children who are the grandchildren of those originally resettled here, according to local leaders.

At least six such camps exist in the capital. Mexico City's housing institute said that since 2016, they have delivered 173 homes to victims of the 1985 quake and expected to hand over 120 more before the end of next year.

Data on how many homes have been delivered in total since 1985 was not immediately available.

Read the rest at Thomson Reuters Foundation

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