This inhumanity probably caused the overwhelming 1998 U.N. vote against the Cuban embargo. Cuba has had to trade its social values for money. With the lifting of the embargo by the rest of the world and Cuba's desire to expand its economy to include tourism, Cuba is now experiencing an infusion of foreign currency. The European architecture of Cuban cities is unique in the Caribbean, reflecting Cuba's past as the richest country in the Caribbean. Cuba has a housing problem, but not a homeless problem.
Many people live in overcrowded housing, but no one is living in the streets.
One of the first things Fidel Castro did when he came to power was to address the housing shortage. Everybody who had property was allowed to keep a main residence and a beach house. The property taken was then distributed to people without housing, who paid the former owners rent as reparations for the land. Castro's version of eminent domain did not go over well with many of the rich who lost land, precipitating the first Cuban exodus to America. Cuba has learned to diversify its economy.