In Venezuela, a Campaigning Chávez Builds Loyalty With House Giveaways Meridith Kohut for The New York Times A woman embraced a soldier as he gave her a ceremonial key and a contract to live in a furnished three-bedroom apartment built by the government. EJIDO, Venezuela - Every Thursday, the state-run television channel here presents a live national broadcast of what might be called "Extreme Home Makeover: Socialist Edition." It is part reality TV, part game show and part full-throated campaign rally. The programming features top aides to President Hugo Chávez handing over new apartments and houses to down-on-their-luck Venezuelans, who respond with telegenic tears and expressions of gratitude to Mr. Chávez, who is running for re-election. "I want to send a message to all the people in shelters, to have faith and keep up hope," said Ramón Rondón, 64, on a recent broadcast, standing in the kitchen of his new apartment in a government-built development called El Cobre. A white-haired pro-Chávez activist, Mr. Rondón added: "This is a victory of the revolution." A short time later, Mr. Rondón's wife, María Monsalvi, 54, relaxed in a new armchair, part of the furniture, including a sofa, beds, a kitchen table and chairs, provided by the government. Above Ms. Monsalvi's head was a photo of Mr. Chávez hung by the show's producers. Because her apartment was featured on television, she was given a deluxe "presidential line" of furnishings. She marveled at her good fortune after losing her home in a mudslide and then spending a year in a cramped shelter. "I felt like I won the lottery," she said. For Americans weary of underwater mortgages and housing booms and busts, there is surely something novel in Venezuela's approach to its own housing crisis. The government estimates that in a country of 29 million people, 2.7 million families need new homes, either because they are homeless, the homes they live in are inadequate or multiple families are crowded together under one roof. The giveaways are a prime example of how Mr. Chávez has been able to maintain popular support for nearly 14 years, despite out-of-control crime, erratic basic services and stubborn poverty. By making a show of delivering new homes to some, he keeps alive hope among many others that they too might some day benefit from the same largess. Recovering from cancer treatments, Mr. Chávez has been far less visible in public than at any other time of his presidency. But his housing giveaways continue, whether he is there to personally hand over the keys to the dwellings himself or not. He finances the new homes with the country's vast oil income and promotes the giveaways through the "Housing Thursday" broadcasts and television commercials that are essentially government-paid ads for Mr. Chávez's candidacy. He recently gave a new apartment to a woman for becoming his three millionth follower on Twitter. Last week, El Cobre's two four-story buildings here in the Andes foothills in western Venezuela were decorated with balloons and Venezuelan flags. Firefighters on a ladder truck hung a huge banner with a picture of a smiling Mr. Chávez. Speakers blared a campaign jingle: "Let's go, Venezuela, support Chávez, on October 7 he will win again." The cameras turned on and the housing minister, Ricardo Molina, took a tour of the Rondóns" three-bedroom apartment, one of 48 apartments in the complex, holding the microphone while the couple praised Mr. Chávez. The broadcast then switched to home giveaways in other parts of the country, and Mr. Molina went back outside to reel off a campaign speech and give away red keys to a handful of residents, a symbolic gesture since they were already moved in and the keys, made of red metal, were blanks. In a country where millions live piled up in precarious slums, the housing campaign generates fierce loyalty. It also wins converts. "I was a squalid one," Mariana Acaso, 32, said, using a derogatory term that Mr. Chávez employs for his opponents. After her house was wrecked in a mudslide last year, she appealed to opposition politicians for help, without result. But Mr. Rondón, who was staying in the same shelter, offered to help and Ms. Acaso received an apartment at El Cobre. María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting from Caracas, Venezuela.