Man in Wheelchair Awaits Promised Home for Over a Decade in Camagüey

Reinier Vega Suárez, a 44-year-old man confined to a wheelchair, has been waiting for ten years for the local government in Camagüey to fulfill its promise of providing him with a decent home. This situation was detailed in a report by journalist José L. Tan Estrada, shared via the #TanteandoCuba platform.

Vega currently resides in a dilapidated wooden and tile room located on D Street #64, between 2nd and 3rd streets, with a sagging roof, rotting front beams, and cracked walls.

The bathroom, built in a makeshift manner, lacks both a floor and a roof and is situated approximately 15 meters from his living quarters. When it rains, water seeps through the roof, the floor, and from the street, flooding nearly the entire area.

Back in 2016, the Camagüey government allocated this plot to him with a promise of a subsidy to construct a house. However, before he even received the paperwork, Vega had to pay 2,600 pesos for the land—a sum equating to more than 16 months of his social assistance income, which was around 160 pesos a month at the time.

Since then, what Tan Estrada describes as "a prolonged bureaucratic ordeal" has ensued, with no resolution even a decade later.

Promises and Disappointments

Vega waited nearly a year to have his land measured and a similar period to obtain the necessary documents. In 2018, the then head of the provincial government visited his home with officials, vehicles, and cameras, making new promises that also went unfulfilled.

Two years later, his case was featured on the local television show Toque de Clarín, aired by Televisión Camagüey, attracting another visit from high-ranking local officials, again without any concrete outcomes.

Another two years passed before Vega was granted the subsidy, the house blueprint, and the construction order, yet the project never commenced. By 2022, he was assured his home would be included in that year's plan.

Some tiles were delivered, and with the help of friends, he erected a temporary structure while awaiting a permanent solution. "The solution never arrived," the report summarizes.

A Broader Housing Crisis

The same year, municipal Party and Government leaders revisited him with further assurances. In 2024, his delegate informed him that materials had been delivered, which Vega disputes, demanding evidence of receipt that was never provided.

Currently, he survives on a social assistance check of barely 1,540 pesos per month—less than 13 dollars at the informal exchange rate—and fears the structure might collapse on him.

His situation highlights a worsening housing crisis in Camagüey: by 2024, the province only met 44% of its housing plan, completing just 10 homes through subsidies—the very method intended for cases like Vega’s.

Nationally, Cuba’s housing production fell by 54% in 2024 compared to the previous year, with only 7,427 units completed across the country, while the housing deficit exceeds 800,000 homes according to 2025 data.

Vega's predicament is not unique. In 2018, the Housing Directorate denied a subsidy to another disabled Cuban in Camagüey due to alleged property irregularities, and in 2019, a severely disabled man who had been seeking assistance since 2012 was still without help.

"Reinier Vega’s story is emblematic of a decade filled with paperwork, official visits, and broken promises," concludes Tan Estrada. "Ten years later, he continues to await the promised home while the dwelling given by the Camagüey government threatens to collapse."