Editing Havana (section)

=== Poverty and slums ===
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!colspan=9| Housing Units and Population of Havana Slums<ref name=Censo_vivienda>INV, Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda (2001a) Boletín Estadístico Anual. 2001. INV, Havana.</ref><ref name=Problemas_socioambientales />
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! style="background:#efefef;"|Housing type
! style="background:#efefef;"|Year
! style="background:#efefef;"|Units
! style="background:#efefef;"|Population
! style="background:#efefef;"|% of Total Pop.
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| '''''cuartería<sup>(a)</sup>''''' || 2001 || 60,754 || 206,564 || 9.4
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| '''[[slum]]s''' || 2001 || 21,552 || 72,986 || 3.3
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| '''[[Refugee shelter|shelters]]''' || 1997 || 2,758 || 9,178 || 0.4
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|colspan=5|<small><sup>'''(a)'''</sup>A '''''cuartería''''' (or '''''ciudadela''''', '''''solar''''') is a large inner-city old mansion or hotel or<br /> boarding house subdivided into rooms, sometimes with over 60 families.<ref name=cuarteria_def>{{cite book|author1=Dick Cluster|author2=Rafael Hernández|title=The History of Havana|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-yxUyss_ycC&pg=PA145|year=2006|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-4039-7107-4|page=145}}</ref></small>
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The years after the [[Soviet Union]] collapsed in 1991, the city, and Cuba in general have suffered decades of economic deterioration, including [[Special Period]] of the 1990s.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cuba - Overview|url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/cuba/index.html|newspaper=New York Times|access-date=1 December 2011|first=Victoria|last=Burnett}}</ref> The national government does not have an official definition of poverty.<ref name=Cub_eco>Angela, Ferriol Maruaga; et al.: ''Cuba crisis, ajuste y situación social (1990–1996)'', La Habana, Cuba : Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1998, Champter 1</ref> The government researchers argue that "poverty" in most commonly accepted meanings does not really exist in Cuba, but rather that there is a sector of the population that can be described as "at risk" or "vulnerable" using internationally accepted measures.<ref name=Cub_eco />

The generic term "[[slum]]" is seldom used in Cuba, substandard housing is described: housing type, housing conditions, building materials, and settlement type. The National Housing Institute considers units in ''solares'' (a large inner-city mansion or older hotel or boarding house subdivided into rooms, sometimes with over 60 families)<ref name=cuarteria_def /> and [[shanty towns]] to be the "precarious housing stock" and tracks their number. Most slum units are concentrated in the inner-city municipalities of [[Old Havana]] and [[Centro Habana]], as well as such neighborhoods as ''Atarés'' in [[Regla]].<ref name=Problemas_socioambientales>González Rego, R. 1999. "Una Primera Aproximación al Análisis Espacial de los Problemas Socioambientales en los Barrios y Focos Insalubres de Ciudad de La Habana". Facultad de Filosofía e Historia. Departamento de Sociología, Universidad de La Habana. 250 p.</ref> People living in slums have access to the same education, health care, job opportunities and social security as those who live in formerly privileged neighborhoods. [[Shanty towns]] are scattered throughout the city except for in a few central areas.<ref name=Problemas_socioambientales />

Over 9% of Havana's population live in ''cuartería'' (''solares, ciudadela''), 3.3% in [[shanty towns]], and 0.3% in refugee shelters.<ref name=Censo_vivienda /><ref name=Problemas_socioambientales /> This does not include an estimate of the number of people living in housing in "fair" or "poor" condition because in many cases these units do not necessarily constitute slum housing but rather are basically sound dwellings needing repairs. According to ''Instituto Nacional de Vivienda'' (National Housing Institute) official figures, in 2001, 64% of Havana's 586,768 units were considered in "good" condition, up from 50% in 1990. Some 20% were in "fair" condition and 16% in "poor" condition.<ref name=Problemas_socioambientales /> Partial or total building collapses are not uncommon, although the number had been cut in half by the end of the 1990s as the worst units disappeared and others were repaired. Buildings in Old Havana and Centro Habana are especially exposed to the elements: high humidity, the corrosive effects of salt spray from proximity to the coast, and occasional flooding. Most areas of the city, especially the highly populated districts, are in [[urban decay]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=24 March 2007|title=Havana's former grandeur decays and crumbles|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-havana-idUSN2034616720070324|access-date=2020-07-17}}</ref>