Municipality of Quito orders to relocate families living in risk areas by giving them houses on loan

The flood that occurred on January 31 in La Comuna and La Gasca, north center of the capital, was the reason for the Council, in two extraordinary sessions, to modify the rules on the process of valuation and financing for the relocation of affected families and at high risk that cannot be mitigated, of Book IV.8 of the Municipal Code for the Metropolitan District of Quito.

With this, the The Secretary of Security and Governance will have eight days to issue a regulatory standard that allows this decision of the building body to be fulfilled.

Ordinance 031-2022 was approved on March 11, 2022 and was registered with the signature of Mayor Santiago Guarderas on Wednesday 16.

After this period, the security entity may establish real estate prevention or mitigation actions regarding families who do not meet the requirements to qualify as beneficiaries of the relocation plan, with the prior express acceptance of the head of the family.

Before the approval of the Ordinance, article IV.8.103 of the Municipal Code established that the beneficiary families had to meet a series of conditions such as: having lost their home due to geomorphological or climatic morphological phenomena; who is the owner, possessor or lessee by more than four years; that is in poverty situation; that the value of the property or property does not exceed the value of the basic social housing; and that none of the family members be the owner, possessor or have rights over another property.

Now, the decision will be made by the Secretary of Security, as long as it is determined that deals with cases of risk that may imminently affect the integrity or life of people who live in these real estate or adjoining properties. For this, there must also be a prior technical report.

The Habitat and Housing company will take care of signing loan contracts or temporary occupation agreements, with the families of the intervened properties. The maximum term of these agreements will be six months, however, yes may be renewed for the same time, if necessary.

The expenses for basic services and use of the places will be assumed by the Municipality.

For cases of intervention or arrangement of real estate, a report by the Security Headquarters of the zonal administration to which it belongs will be required. In addition, they must be validated by the Risk Management Department. Given this, the Municipality “in an exceptional and for a single time, in accordance with the planning and the assigned budget, it may order the intervention in said properties”says the Ordinance.

The intervention measures that the Municipality may decide on are: request that the property be declared of public utility for the purpose of expropriation in the case of a good that is at non-mitigable risk. I mean, it can’t be fixed.

They can also take measures of prevention, mitigation or repair of real estate to solve the risks found, as well as other measures that the technicians recommend in reports.

Exceptional interventions will be subject to any of these cases:

• When they are situations of public interest and the conditions of real estate cause unavoidable damage to its neighbors.
• When they may imminently affect the integrity of the life of the people who live in the property, its neighbors, or the affected area where the property is located. In addition, it may be applied when there are anthropic circumstances (citizen actions) that have nothing to do with actions or omissions of the owners.

For example, in the El Tejado ravine, in the La Comuna neighborhood The experts found remains of rubble on the path taken by the barrage that left 28 people dead. Discharging trash or debris at these locations is an anthropic circumstance, made by humans, however, those affected are not responsible, or there was no way to demonstrate that.

• In the fulfillment of projects financed with resources from multilateral credit organizations.

In the document approved by the councilors, the Municipality shields itself from administrative or legal issues against him, adding that the interventions shall in no way imply acknowledgment of responsibility in the causes that have originated or motivated the intervention, which will have a preventive and emergent nature, in the face of serious and imminent risks.

In addition, municipal entities must carry out the control and monitoring of families that have received these benefits to guarantee the correct use of resources.

If they determine that a citizen did not apply for this aid or did not technically justify the need of the intervention, the Secretary of Security may request a title of credit to initiate a coercive process with interest charged to the beneficiaries of said intervention. (I)