Great Mission Housing Venezuela

Great Mission Housing Venezuela (Spanish: Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela, GMVV) is a program of the Venezuelan government Bolivarian missions to provide housing for people who live in precarious conditions. The program was launched by the Hugo Chávez administration in 2011 and planned to build 350,000 houses by the end of 2012 (a target which it beat by 25,000).[1]

Under the GMVV, the government provides residents with a long-term payment plan based on their means of paying. Residents pay for the cost of building the houses, not the market value of the property. Each resident retains their house for life and can pass the house on to their children. If a resident wishes to sell their house within 30 years of taking possession, the government has first refusal.[2]

In 2014, the squatters of the Centro Financiero Confinanzas were resettled under the program in Cúa, to the south of Caracas.[3] According to the Venezuelan Chamber of Construction, a total of 545,612 homes were built during the 12 years of Chávez's administration, between 1999 and 2010: 284,852 by the public sector and 260,760 by the private sector.[4] According to the Venezuelan government figures, a million Venezuelans were rehoused under the GMVV by March 2016.[2]

In 2015, a woman was granted a flat under the scheme after hitting President Nicholas Maduro on the head with a mango. The mango had a message attached asking Maduro to help the woman find housing.[5]