Título I. Disposiciones generales

The present Law has as its object to regulate and promote the actions of the State, coherently developing the housing sector, its services and social facilities. To that end, the institutional, technical, social and financial bases shall be established to allow the Guatemalan family access to dignified, adequate and healthy housing, with facilities and services.

For the purposes of this Law, the State and the inhabitants of the Republic shall be subject to principles of a public nature and of social interest:

a)The right to decent, adequate and healthy housing, as a fundamental human right, the exercise of which the State must guarantee,

b)The solution to the housing problem shall be promoted within a framework of comprehensive and sustainable development, that is, one involving economic, social, financial, technical, legal and environmental aspects.

c)The housing programs and projects that are promoted shall guarantee the sustainable, economic and environmental development of housing production processes, their services, community facilities and land-use planning for the purpose of preserving resources with a forward-looking vision.

d)The development of housing plans, programs and projects framed within land-use planning policies, provision of infrastructure, basic facilities and adequate public spaces, as well as availability, frequency and continuity in services.

e)The densification of urban areas through high-rise construction by using underutilized areas more intensively, maximizing existing basic services and reducing the serious problems caused by disorderly horizontal expansion.

f)Citizen participation in the prioritization, formulation, execution, administration and oversight of housing programs and projects, services and their facilities.

g)Persons constituting a marriage, de facto union or adults with dependent family members shall enjoy the benefits established in this Law; in the same manner, single mothers and single fathers, widowed mothers and widowed fathers, older persons and those with differentiated capacity shall benefit.

h)The State, through its institutions, shall:

•Guarantee to all Guatemalan persons the right to tenure of decent, adequate and healthy housing, in its various modalities.

•Provide to persons residing in precarious human settlements the option of having decent, adequate and healthy housing in accordance with the purposes established in this Law.

•Prioritize programs and projects designed and executed to serve the least favored sectors, through accessible, simple, timely and favorable financial systems.

•Foster accessible financing systems for the acquisition of housing for all Guatemalan persons living in poverty.

•Ensure, together with Guatemalan families, housing development in harmony with the rational and effective preservation of land, natural resources and the environment, for the purpose of guaranteeing its sustainability and sustentability.

The principles set forth in the preceding article are of public order and social interest; consequently, no one may disregard or impair them and they constitute a set of minimum, non-waivable guarantees, capable of being improved in accordance with the constitutional mandate.

The interpretation of the provisions of this Law shall be carried out in harmony with the provisions of the Political Constitution of the Republic of Guatemala.

The application of this Law and its regulations falls within the competence of the Executive Branch, through the governing entity.

Guatemalans have the right to decent, adequate and healthy housing, with legal certainty, availability of infrastructure, basic services and proximity to community facilities, which constitutes a fundamental human right, without distinction as to ethnicity, age, sex or social or economic condition, it being the responsibility of the State to promote and facilitate the exercise thereof, with special protection for children, single mothers and elderly persons.

For the purposes and effects of the application of this Law, the following definitions shall be taken into consideration:

a)Precarious human settlement: it is the group of families in conditions of poverty and extreme poverty that inhabit areas with deficiencies in housing, services, facilities and that are settled on unsuitable land.

b)Self-construction of housing: it is the process of construction or building of housing carried out directly by its own users, in whole or in part, individually, by family or collectively.

c)Self-production of housing of social interest: it is the process of land management, construction and distribution of housing, under the direct control of the user persons individually or collectively, which may be carried out through the contracting of third persons.

d)Concertation: they are the agreements reached with the generalized consent of persons or groups regarding topics related to decent housing, its territorial ordering, services and facilities.

e)Development: it is the process of interaction of persons with their habitat, through the application of human, material and financial resources, which has as its characteristic the satisfaction of human needs and the improvement of the quality of life, making sustainable use of natural resources so that future generations may make use of them.

f)Human development: it is the process by which a society improves the living conditions of the population, through an increase in the goods with which it can meet its basic and complementary needs and through the creation of an environment in which the human rights of all of them are respected.

g)Integral development: it is the implementation of programs and projects that must be technically and economically efficient and feasible, articulated within a framework of urban development, provided with basic services, community facilities and adequate location of sources of employment.

h)Regional development: it is the process of social and economic growth of certain geographic units to guarantee rural-urban functionality and the improvement of the quality of life of the population, the preservation of the environment and the conservation and reproduction of natural resources.

i)Urban development: it is the orderly and planned adaptation and orientation of the process of urbanization and occupation of urban space in its physical, economic and social aspects, which implies spatial and demographic transformation; improving the quality of life of the population, the conservation of the environment and the maintenance of the cities in conditions of functionality.

j)Governing entity: it is the public agency in charge of the housing sector, responsible for ensuring compliance with this Law.

k)Social facilities: it is the infrastructure and building established to provide the services that generate the urban means of satisfaction in education, health, recreation, sports, security, culture and day-care centers.

l)Participatory management: It is the joint intervention of society and the government, sharing decisions, responsibilities, costs and benefits in the execution of housing projects.

m)Territorial ordering in housing matters: it is the process of regulation of land use and occupation, by which it is studied and promoted that the territory be used efficiently, for dignified and balanced housing development, based on its biophysical, environmental, socioeconomic, cultural, political-administrative and institutional characteristics.

n)Poverty: it is the situation in which a person or family cannot satisfy the set of basic needs for the sustenance of a dignified life and full participation in social life.

o)Extreme poverty: it is the situation of penury of a person or family, which is deprived of the minimum amount of the indispensable means of satisfaction for its survival.

p)Social production of housing: it is the process of housing production carried out under the control of self-producers and self-builders, and which is primarily oriented to meeting the housing needs of the low-income population.

q)Social producer of housing: it is the natural person or legal person that produces housing individually or collectively.

r)Housing sector: it is the group of centralized, decentralized and autonomous public bodies and institutions, municipalities, private institutions, non-governmental organizations, housing cooperatives, community and settler organizations, whose competence or purpose is the management of processes that allow access to decent and healthy housing, or that carry out activities within the subject matter of territorial ordering in housing matters.

s)Basic services: it is the infrastructure necessary to complement the habitability of adequate, decent and healthy housing.

t)Community subsidy: it is the contribution granted by the State to an organized community in a situation of poverty or extreme poverty, intended for the installation of a community productive process for housing materials and services.

u)Direct subsidy: it is the contribution granted by the State to persons or families in a situation of poverty or extreme poverty, intended to provide family economic capacity to acquire land with services, construction or acquisition of decent housing, or qualitative improvement of a housing solution.

v)Land use: it is the activity carried out in any area of rural or urban land for housing, facilities and services purposes.

w)Decent, adequate and healthy housing: It is that which functions as a safe refuge space and health agent to guarantee the appropriate quality of life for its inhabitants, protecting them from the elements and satisfactorily meeting their basic needs and which must have at minimum:

•the functional, hygienic and comfortable habitable spaces sufficient in proportion to the number of persons inhabiting them, with possibilities for future expansions;

•the aesthetic value of a quality formal design suitable for developing the physical and mental health and attitude of its inhabitants, while protecting the ecosystem;

•structural safety in its construction, adaptation to the climate with criteria of environmental sustainability, energy efficiency and prevention to confront disaster risk factors;

•potable water, electric power, wastewater and solid waste disposal services that contribute to reducing disease vectors, while guaranteeing that waste disposal is carried out sustainably so as not to contaminate the ecosystem;

•location, orientation, adaptation, adjustment or integration with landscape visual harmony to the characteristics of the contextual environmental surroundings, which includes the cultural, heritage, natural and urban aspects;

•security of tenure of the property;

•accessibility to have within an adequate radius of action, the basic facilities of public spaces with quality designs in:

roadways, health, education, recreation, sports, commerce, transport and services;

•ease for adequate use, management and maintenance thereof and its surroundings;

•the guarantee that the technology used, the construction materials and construction systems are produced with respect for and protection of human health and the environment.