The Movers and Swappers of Cuba on the Prado

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

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And I'm Michele Norris.

Imagine not having to pay rent or a mortgage. That's how it works in socialist Cuba where housing is free. But what if you want to move?

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro went to find out what people in Havana do in a country with no craigslist.

(Soundbite of trumpets)

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO: Two trumpet players practice on the seafront promenade, the Malecon. It's a warm morning in Havana and just up the street from them -in the heart of the historic center - people are gathered on a three-line street called Prado.

Some stand along carrying cardboard signs that give the dimension of their homes - a two-bedroom apartment in Old Havana, a one-bedroom place in another neighborhood on the outskirts, others cluster together to talk.

One woman tells another that she's looking for a small two room flat in Central Havana. She says she's been searching for a year. But in socialist Cuba, you can't buy or rent a new home, you permutar, which literally means to swap.

Tony - who declines to give his last name - explains how it works.

TONY (Resident, Cuba): (Through Translator) This is traditionally - for many years - the designated place for people who wants to swap homes come. Generally, everyday until about 1:00 p.m. Everyone who has a spare moment who is looking to move will come here, and this is the way they find a match or not. It's a question of luck.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Once you find some one, the government has to approve the switch - some are more fortunate than others. Still, finding a place that fits one's needs is difficult.

TONY:(Through Translator) For example, in my case, I live with my brother. He wants to make his own life and I want to make mine. One way or another, we want to separate from each other. We are trying to find two small apartments and my house could go to two people who want to move in together. That way I find my peace and they find theirs.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Today, though, Tony is lucky. An older woman seems to provide the answer he needs.

Unidentified Woman:(Through Translator) I have a small apartment, my sister has one too and we want to move in together. So, I'm interested in looking at Tony's place to see if it works.

SO I move in with my sibling and he move away from his.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Housing is a problem in Cuba. There are no homeless but according to a 2005 Cuban government report, there is a deficit of at least half a million homes on the island. When the report was released, parliament speaker, Ricardo Alarcon, called housing one of the government's most serious challenges. Because of the 50-year-old U.S. embargo, materials have been hard to come by. So generations of the families have been forced to live together.

As we ware talking about this, a man steps in and asks…

Juan Carlos (Resident, Cuba):(Through Translator) They tell you they have no building materials but what about those new hotels that they're building? The new hospitals? Then they have what they need. We are four people who live in one room. They should hurry up and build homes for the people who need it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: His name is Juan Carlos, and he says he really needs it. There is no privacy, he laments. If he wants to sleep with his wife, he has to wait until everyone leaves.

Juan Carlos (Resident, Cuba):(Through Translator) You have to wait until there's an opportunity to do what you want. It's not like you're going to do stuff in front of your family right here. No, no, no. I have to wait for my mother to go out to the park, you know.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And that puts obvious pressures on marriages. Cuba has one of the highest divorce rates in the world.

Still, the Cuban government says that housing is more equitably distributed than it was before the revolution - when huge swamp of territory were owned by wealthy families.

Even though the Cuban authorities have made selling or buying property illegal, people still do it and homes at good areas are at a premium. On woman confides dejectedly.

Unidentified Woman: (Through Translator) I haven't found anything yet. People ask for money - I don't have any.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Central Havana is worth so much. Vedado is worth something else and it's in hard currency too. Of course not everyone even has the opportunity to swap homes in Cuba.

Havana has a number of neighborhoods that has been designated insalubrious -they are a kind of shanty towns. Here, the roofs are made of tin and the walls - in some cases - are plank wood. Sarah(ph) has lived here all her life.

Sarah (Resident, Cuba): (Through Translator) I am crazy to swap and get out of here. Look at this ditch here. My daughter is allergic. But the government says that no one can swap into this neighborhood and no one can swap out. I can never better myself and get out of here.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: She and her daughter sleep on a single bed. When her husband comes over, he sleeps on the floor of their tiny room - shoved between the fridge and the door.

Sarah (Resident, Cuba): (Through Translator) Families get bigger and it's illegal to construct new housing. So just in this alleyway, there are seven families that are all from the same family because people grow up, they get married, they have their own kids, and they need their own place to live. So homes turn into cakes - a larger house id sliced and sliced until it doesn't give anymore.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The Cuban government has promised to build tens of thousands of new dwellings this year. There is a famous Cuban film called, "Se permute". It's a comedy of errors about the difficulties of moving house in Havana. Cubans still haven't lost their sense of humor about their system.

Back at the housing swamp meet on Prado, a man calls out to me. You want to swap your house in Mexico for one in Havana, he asked. And then he laughingly walks off.

Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News.

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