Migrants They pay high costs to sleep in dance halls, yoga centers, terraces, guest houses and hotels in Mexico City, due to the lack of public shelters and they lack documents that allow them to rent an apartment.
At the end of 2023, authorities of the capital government closed permanently several shelterssuch as the one in Tláhuac, which were destined for the care of caravans migrants who have intensified their passage through the Metropolis since 2021.
In the absence of accommodation Sure, migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras and other parts of the central and southern part of the continent pay to sleep or stay in 3 thousand to 7 thousand 500 pesos monthly per person.
In some places they are only allowed to enter at night and sleep communally. matswithout the opportunity to access other services such as showers or kitchen.
This is how a yoga center operated, located at number 32 on Doctor Enrique González Martínez street, in the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood, where they were only allowed to stay overnight for 100 pesos per night per person and at 8:00 a.m. the next day they had to vacate the facilities to continue with their yoga practices. yoga, dance and tai chi.
This situation changed a bit after the place eliminated dancing from its activities this year and the hall is now used by migrants.
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“Now we can stay inside all day. It’s a room where they used to dance and they put mats on the floor. To stay there for the day and the night it costs 100 pesos, there are several of us. There is also a terrace, a bathroom and a place to charge your cell phone,” explained Joshua, a young man from Venezuela, who said he works occasionally as a waiter in a nearby restaurant.
Joshua pays to sleep in a padalong with other unknown persons, 3 thousand pesos per monthbut he agrees to do so because he has no papers or a steady job. “I want to get to the United States, like everyone else, but I don’t have papers, I’m waiting to get them,” he said.
At number 24 and 26 of the same street there are two guest houses where they offer small rooms equipped with a bed, gas, water, internet, kitchen and shared bathrooms, here they do not ask for documentation and the cost is 1,450 pesos weekly per person.
“Right now we don’t have any rooms available. We are saturated, we have been like this for a long time. Sometimes some people have been here for several months and suddenly they leave. The movement here is strange, it is just asking to see if there is a room available,” said the management of one of the houses.
According to neighbors, they live there migrants of Venezuelan and occasionally Haitian origin, and those who already have a stable job, as vendors or porters, mainly in the areas of Tepito and the Historic Center.
Gabriela Hernández, director of Casa Tochan, a civil society shelter, explained that the presence of this population has not missing or diminished in Mexico City, only that it decided to lower its profile in the face of harassment and evictions perpetrated by local authorities.
“The rent or payment of community rooms and hotels is the only remedy they have found in the face of the impossibility of entering a hostel. We do follow their trail because in addition to the hostel They can stay for three months. We have not reduced the time because we see that it would be impossible to give them a short time, many of them have already found work, but they want to continue on their way. Right now they are saving to leave, but the migrants are still in the city,” Hernández stressed.
In the Obrera neighborhood, the Empire hotels, located on Manuel J. Othon Street, and the Waikiki, on Simón Bolívar Street, are mostly occupied by Venezuelan migrants and Hondurans, although last year a very large community of Haitians settled in the first hotel, according to neighbors.
“They are still hotels for passing through, but less so. People who were dedicated to the sex work, or couples went. Now there are more migrant men and some families with children.
“Before you saw them more on the street, but now you notice because you see their clothes hanging in the windows or on the roof,” said Mario, a resident of the area.
Until 2021, these sites charged 120 to 150 pesos for four hours or per night. However, for full days they charge between 240 and 280 pesos from Monday to Thursday, and 300 pesos from Friday to Saturday, as these are considered days of high demand.
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The monthly amount amounts to 8 thousand 400 pesos by room for two to four people, a price higher than those paid for rental housing in this area, where apartments of 50 to 70 square meters cost between 7 thousand and 9 thousand pesos.
“What is happening with the lack of housing and the abusive prices is wrong, without any respect and people sometimes have to put up with it because there is no other way,” reiterated the activist, who currently houses 80 migrants.