Affordable social housing available for locals in Santa Maria ?

Hello Tracy Thompson,

We (Expat.com) are a website, a social platform and we rely on members to share infos. We do not offer any services as such however, we have several sections of the website whereby members can gather information, discuss (forum), search for accommodation or offer accommodation by hosting your ads (Housing section), look for a job or post a vacancy (jobs section) etc...

In regards to your search, I would suggest that you have a look at ads listed in the Housing in Cape Verde section or post your own "looking for" ad to get some offers.

I hope members can guide you if ever they know about affordable social housing.

All the best

Bhavna

Looking for a local mother and child. Not sure where to start, as I am unfamiliar with the services available here. She can only afford 17500 exc per month and lost her partner recently in an accident, sadly.
-@Tracy Thompson

Hi Tracy,

Be aware that every Capeverdean is intimately familiar with the few public and social services that are available to them. And in terms of housing, they all know where are the cheapest places to live (usually in the poorest neighborhoods). If anyone tells you otherwise, they aren't being completely honest and are probably looking to obtain financial help from you and others you know. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, only suggesting that you get to the bottom of the issue as people here are not always direct. But be careful as many people make up "sob stories" to extract money from bleeding hearts...it's just an integral part of the culture surrounding poverty. Not saying that this is the case here. But in general, you must be careful not to be duped into handing out cash.

As far as public housing, the only such thing that is available is the government project called Casa Para Todos. However, there are thousands of people seeking those services and there are only a few hundred housing units available in each island. There is a very rigorous selection process and it costs applicants about €100 or more to obtain all the required documents. This is one way to help such an individual (don't hand over cash directly, but go with them to pay the fees otherwise the cash will be used for other purposes). However, most of these housing units are likely already assigned.

Since this lady is in Sal, which is by far the most expensive place to live in Cape Verde, you might ask her which island she's actually from. Sal's native population is 10,000 but there are 30,000 locals there with most coming from other islands to work at the hotels and the tourism businesses. You might suggest she return to the island of origin, especially if it is Santiago where there are jobs. On the other hand, it's possible that she already has a job there if she can afford to pay 17.500$ for rent as that is considered a considerable sum by locals (the minimum wage in CV is 14.000$).

The impression I get is that when her husband was alive, together they were able to pay an even higher rent. But now that he's unfortunately passed, she cannot afford the apartment where they lived. And she may be unwilling to live in the area where the rent is 17.500$. It's unfortunate from our perspective because the area that is affordable to her in Espargos is a dive (you would not imagine that it is fit for human occupation), but that is the reality and thousands of the locals live this way.

The options to get help for such individuals on a broad scale are limited. What I've done here in Praia is to ask wealthy expats to "sponsor" a family. It does require a commitment of about €100 per month.

Instead of trying to fix everyone's financial needs, try to identify deserving families (usually led by a single mother) and help the mother with payments for daycare, tuition, food, transport of the kids. Do not pay the rent or try to move them to better housing. Instead help provide for the kids. Most importantly, the mother must work, so helping her find employment is key if she's not already working or doesn't already have her own business. I've found this to be most effective.

I've put some sponsors together with working mothers. In some cases, the sponsors have employed the woman as a domestic worker to cook, clean, etc. I myself am sponsoring 4 families (I have been blessed with enough that I am able to share some of my good fortune). One of the women works in my business as my assistant and she also has a small business which I'm helping her to grow. Two have minimum wage jobs. The fourth has started her own business (which I helped her launch)...she used to earn the minimum wage but she now employs 3 others! Quite a success story.

I only share this suggestion to highlight that it's not finding housing that is effective because they can find their own. But helping working mothers with the financial weight of raising children and with finding employment or starting a micro business is what works best in my experience here in CV.

Cheers,

Angelo

@Bhavna I had checked the housing section but none was affordable to locals - Was this question not posted in the "questions" forum? Not sure why it was sent to you?

@CVAngelo we were friends with her husband, he recently drowned. It is not a false story. She has family in Espargus, but it is further to travel for kids school and work everyday, and difficult for her. I will tell her about "Todos" ect.

I know how the locals live, it is humble, and infrastructure definitely needs a huge injection for water and electric to run better. In Vancouver, we require all developers to pay towards these costs in a very real way.

For example - I wonder if the new " Serena Bay " development is required to build new pipelines and water resources, and also improve existing electric grid? Would national government set policy on your island, and know about that on Sal? Are the municipalities self governed or more similar to independent states?