HAVANA, February 26 (Luis Viño Zimerman / www.cubanet.org) - Eleven
apartment buildings in Havana have been empty for years while housing
authorities put people in need of shelter on hold.
The buildings, in the Alamar subdivision of Havana, have been practically
abandoned since their former occupants, Soviet technicians posted to Cuba, left
the island after relations crumbled between Cuba and the former Soviet Union.
Each building has 40 apartments of between one and three bedrooms. There are
reportedly thousands of families living in temporary shelters in the capital,
but housing authorities say the buildings are reserved by the State for its
needs, according to one shelter resident who has been campaigning,
unsuccessfully, to be awarded one of the vacant apartments.
Occasionally, some of the apartments have been occupied by members of the
Armed Forces assigned to short training stints in Havana.
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