Sheinbaum Delivers Homes in Chiapas; “Interest That Made Houses Unpayable Is No Longer Charged”

ByLilian Hernández Osorio

This article by Lilian Hernández Osorio originally appeared in the November 8, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Tuxtla Gutiérrez. A good government is one that helps the people, not the “usurer and swindler,” as happened years ago with housing loans, asserted the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum.

“The effort is yours; we facilitate, we help fulfill something that is a right: access to housing, to health, to education,” she added during the delivery of homes in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas.

In the past, she explained, housing loans were “pure usury, pure swindling, pure robbery.” Today, she added, interest that made houses unpayable, or that meant people ended up paying up to triple the original cost, is no longer charged. As an example, she noted that on a loan of 104,000 pesos, the borrower had paid 338,000 but still owed 1,132,000 pesos, which made them unpayable, but that scheme is over.

“This beautiful program, this just program called Housing for Well-being: 1.8 million low-income families are going to have housing and 5 million families have seen the debt they had with Infonavit and Fovissste restructured, and in addition loans are being given, deeds are being given to people who still don’t have them,” she detailed.

In total, she said, 12 million families will benefit from the Housing for Well-being program, because the government must live up to its people. That is why, she shot back:

Those who used to steal criticize us a lot and say we are defrauding Infonavit and Fovissste, but what we are doing is justice.

President Claudia Sheinbaum

During her third day touring Chiapas, at the delivery of a batch of 55 homes in the Los Poetas housing development, where there are a total of 400 houses of 60 square meters, the federal president said she was happy because they are fulfilling their commitments to the people who have the least, who with this program can have access to housing at more affordable prices.

For her part, the Secretary of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (Sedatu), Edna Elena Vega Rangel, highlighted that this delivery of homes to people with incomes of one to 2.9 minimum wages represents “leaving behind a policy that abandoned housing.”

In Chiapas, she reported, the goal is 70,500 homes with 42.3 billion pesos for 254,000 people over the six-year term.

This figure, she said, reflects a policy that attends to the needs of the population and recognizes social justice with adequate housing and better development opportunities.