The building where they lived, at the corner of Campanario and Neptuno streets, has suffered several partial collapses.
14ymedio, Juan Diego Rodríguez, Havana, 27 July 2026 / A dozen residents of 264 Campanario Street, at the corner of Neptuno, in Central Havana, have been sleeping on the street since they were evicted from their building by authorities more than two weeks ago, due to the risk of collapse. The group, which includes elderly people and children, remains in front of the building with their belongings: chairs, tables, a bed, a stove, and even windows.
The evicted families have demanded explanations from the local government, according to a complaint posted on social media by Zol Arias, but so far their pleas have been ignored. They were evicted but offered no alternative.
“They demand an answer and all they do is pass the buck while they remain in the street,” the user says in a comment, in which she states that although she now lives outside of Cuba, it was her old home and her mother and brother are still there.
“They are asked for an answer and all they do is pass the buck while they remain in the street.”
From the outside, the building appears to be in very poor condition, having lost a large part of its balconies. The interior also shows signs of collapse. For this reason, the police have cordoned off the street.
Central Havana is, after Old Havana, the most deteriorated neighborhood in the capital, and Neptuno Street itself has been the scene of several collapses. One of them, a balcony collapse in 2022, fortunately caused no injuries .
There was an injury, last September, when a woman was walking along San Lázaro Street, between Hospital and Espada, when a balcony collapsed. According to witnesses who spoke to 14ymedio at the time, “a rock fell on her and made her roll to the edge of the sidewalk,” requiring her to be hospitalized.
A month before that incident, an elderly woman was injured when a building partially collapsed on Reina Street , between Manrique and San Nicolás, also in Central Havana. The woman was hospitalized, and nearly 15 families were left homeless, their furniture and appliances piled up in the street. That night, most had to spend it outdoors, and, according to one of the affected families who spoke to this newspaper, on that first day “no one” from the government came to check on their situation.
In a partial collapse of a building on the corner of San Rafael and Galiano streets, in the same municipality and also in August 2025, an employee of Café Boulevard, located on the ground floor, died. The collapse of part of the roof trapped several people. According to neighbors who spoke to this newspaper at the time, the building has a tenement on the upper floor with infrastructure problems and overcrowding. Part of the roof collapsed on the café’s employees, and one of them died under the rubble. The entire block where the building is located shows alarming signs of deterioration and lack of maintenance.
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