Brazil will start construction next month on the first of a million affordable dwellings to address a housing deficit and defend its economy from the global downturn, the government announced Wednesday.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega said the project is expected to create 1.5 million jobs and help the economy expand an additional 2 percent. It will cost about $15 billion, the government said.

 

Brazilians earning up to $2,000 a month will be allowed to apply for financing for the houses built across the country, but 400,000 homes will be reserved for families earning less than $600 a month.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva touted the plan as a "bold" response to hard economic times. But he backed off a 2011 deadline for building a million homes, a feat that many call impossible.

"There is no time limit," Silva said, announcing an April 13 start date.

Brazil has long faced an acute housing shortage. The Getulio Vargas Foundation think tank has in the past said the nation lacks upward of 8 million housing units. That has led millions of Brazilians to live as squatters in cities and to the emergence of a "roofless" social movement that represents them.

Mantega said recently the government plans to spend the equivalent of $152 billion to build housing for poor families over the next 15 years.

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